Unwanted Attention
by Heavywordsthrown2light
Summary: After the events of Jail Break, Earth's media turned their eyes towards Beach City, as confirmation of alien invasion takes the world by storm. The government eventually gets involved, and drastic measures are taken to ensure the security of Earth's people
1. Chapter 1 Paranoia

Steven ran into the temple, breathing heavily, just escaping an army of interviewers. Amethyst coming through the window as an owl. "It's getting worse, can't even get fry bits without fifty people trying to shove cameras in my face!" Amethyst grunting, checking all the windows to see if anyone had followed her.

Garnet came through the portal gate, "Has anyone seen Pearl?" She began to search the house for her.

Steven flipped on television, "Nothing but the ship crashing into the temple. Hey, there she is!" Steven pointing at the television screen. Pearl trying to run from a sea of reporters, eventually shape shifting into a seagull, escaping into the clouds. Within minutes, Pearl flung open the door. "We need to set up the fence until all this nonsense blows over." Pearl ' hair had become tangled and constricted into strange coil like shapes. If gems could be physically tired, she would be a few seconds away from collapsing on the floor.

Amethyst, ready to laugh at Pearl 's appearance, realized she was dead serious, sighing, "I'll go get the barb wire."

Steven questioned, "A fence?"

Garnet explained. "We set it up after people came too close to the temple. Well, before a few people jumped over it."

Amethyst came up with a simple idea, "Why don't we just set up and electric one?"

Pearl scolded, "Amethyst, where would we get something like that, we can barely keep the television running."

Amethyst crossed her arms, "I hate it when you're right."

Pearl ' s expression changed to her typical 'know it all' face. "Well, we should start now before they find the temple."

A flash came from the outside, the flash of the camera signified a picture being taken. Three more followed as a lone photographer paced back to the town.

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl told Steven to stay put while they checked out who was the mysterious cameraman. They stopped him, only for him to talk to them for what seemed like a few minutes. The gems came back to the house, no, even Amethyst was dead silent.

Steven asked, "Guys, what happened."

Pearl gave a fake smile, "Oh, nothing, just another crazy reporter." Her words seem to crawl to the end of her sentence. She was lying. Steven asked around, everyone assuring nothing was wrong. But Steven knew something was wrong. That night, he asked Amethyst about it.

Amethyst finally gave up the charade. "It was a guy from the government. He asked all these weird questions about us and why we were here."

Steven went deeper, "Like what?"

Amethyst looked away, "You didn't hear it from me, but he asked us to surrender. They think we're the gems that crashed that ship. They knew a lot, they knew about you, Rose..." The mentioning of Steven ' s mother hit a nerve. "Pearl and Garnet didn't agree and told them to leave. He told us to 'expect company' or something like that."

Steven had watched enough movies to know this wouldn't end well. "Why did you guys lie to me about it?"

Amethyst just left, going into her own room.


	2. Chapter 2 Sleepless infamy

The General came down to a facility in the middle of the desert, rushing in at a feverish pace. A newspaper clutched in his hand, with a crashed ship on the front page. He ran straight to the lead scientist. "You best hope this nonsense isn't any of your business or I'll shut this place down faster than your mother when I-"

"General." The scientist meekly said, "those gems haven't been cataloged into our system."

The General's nostrils flared, "And that means?"

The scientist shook his head, "we missed a few."

The General growled angrily, just venting his anger. He slowly calmed down. "What can kill those things? Make this quick, my leash in Capitol Hill is waiting."

The scientist quickly scratched his head, "You see, that's the problem, we've tried detonating our strongest warheads on some of the subjects, they just reform within days."

The General sighed, turning his back towards the chopper,"the President is going to hate this..."

"Wait." The scientist paused. "There is another way."

The General turned so fast it looked like he would've snapped his neck. "What is it, what could do more damage than our most powerful weapons?"

The scientist almost giggled, "Right this way please."

The IV drips hung loosely on the frame of a bed. The beeping of a monitor signaled a heart beat. The sound of respirators pumped air into the lungs of a patient. This patient wasn't human. His skin tone was a bit tan, with a red tint on the skin. A sardonyx gem gleamed maroon against the pale moonlit room. A doctor danced into the room. Starring intensely at the gem encrusted arm. Heavy calcification pierced the flesh and bone on the patient's arm, ripping at the muscles on his arm. Every breath he winced from the pain, the doctor looked through the files. "Sardonyx: first name, last name:unknown. Place of birth: unknown. Birth date: also unknown. Species," she looked at his arm, and then to his face, where blood red eyes stared back at her, his skin appeared human and didn't seem to appear oddly discolored. "Unknown." She began making measurements of him, as a hundred other physicians over the centuries had. The origin of the calcification was the greatest mystery. She rolled out an X ray of his right arm, the jagged bones and flesh showed merging with the rocky substance.

When asked about the pain, Sardonyx replied with a rather flat sounding, "9."

The doctor stared at the registrations. Drafts as far back as the American Revolution, "You're very old. Do you remember how you got this?" The doctor pointed to the disfigured arm.

Sardonyx just stared at her, annoyed and uncomfortable . "Look, just give me the anti gen, and I'll be out of here."

The doctor looked through the missions he carried out. In all that time, he was hired to get rid of 'unnatural' phenomenon. "You hunt... 'gems.'" The doctor realized why this test subject was kept comfortable above the others; he worked for countless agencies to combat threats beyond the ability of humans. With a sigh, she gave him the substance that kept his calcified arm from growing any further. As soon as the long steel needle stabbed into his back, his muscles relaxed , as his breathing became deep. He ripped off the IV drips and respirators.

"What's wrong with the treatment?" The gem asked the doctor.

"What?" The doctor asked.

"I can still feel the crystals growing, it's not stopping." He winced from an after effect of some kind.

The doctor explained, "The growth are growing... Faster than ever, the treatment is losing its effect, you will need to take it more often, every few days now." She flipped through, "We've tried cutting the arm off. Swords, knives, power saws, hell, even industrial lasers. The substance is almost ten times harder than diamond, and stronger than even carbon steel . It's indestructible." With a sigh, she said, "There's nothing we can do for you." She closed the file and turned to leave.

"Wait." The patient needed to ask one last question, "How many more years?"

The doctor looked down. "Not much more than one." She left the room, only for the familiar face of the General to peer into the room.

"I see you're awake, good." The General smiled for once. "You might like this one." He sat at the desk, laying out a newspaper. The article showed a giant hand like structure laying against a large mountain, overlooking a Beach City. 'This is an opportunity to serve your country..."

The gem grimaced, "Please skip the introduction, I've heard it almost 500 times now."

The General smirked, "Well, I assume this is easy pickings for you. The files say you've been doing this for centuries."

"No," the gem shook his head, "these aren't just the typical gem fragments, these are live gems, they don't bleed,can't tire. They don't even sleep. The last time I met one..." Sardonyx looked down at his arms crystal protrusions, "This happened."

The Commander seemed to lose his smile, and looked grave beyond words. "We can't fight them, if they could do that to you, I don't even wanna think they'd do to tanks, or people. We can't endanger civilians by dropping bombs. You're our only deterrent."

The gem shook his head. "I've already done what I can, I don't take missions anymore. My condition is getting worse, I can't even feel my own hand anymore."

The General took off his glasses, setting them on a table near the bed, "I don't think you realize this, but I own you." The gem didn't respond. "Did you hear? I own you, we don't need to give you treatment anymore, you don't have anything to bargain for it. In fact, I'll be taking those." The General took out a stick and hit him in the gem, the gem's eyes dilated inward, as a gasp escaped his lungs. The General then overturned the bed, "Now, get up. You have work to do."

It had been centuries, but humanity has never been so violent. Are these gems really what the media makes them out to be? Sardonyx can't fight them all, he needs to get on the inside somehow. He needed a plan. The mission was so simply put; drive them out of Beach City so they can be dealt with properly. He was half way from putting on armor, when a brilliant idea struck him. The amnesia card. Act like his memory is gone and be oblivious to everyone. He focused into his gem, his power was limited, so he merely made a few rags for clothes, and walked down from the facility. He took a look around, test subjects still locked up for countless offenses to mankind. The most recent was a rather large gem, trying to escape, hollering and swinging her head to try to summon a weapon. He didn't remember locking her up specifically, which was odd, most of the gem fragments were apprehended by him. He disregarded it as an experiment and moved on, it was gruesome to watch them squirming, but centuries of hunting them has taught him one thing: all gems were a danger to every living thing around them. Whether they were aware of it or not. He had to do this, if he didn't, he wouldn't live much longer. The calcification ran from the tip of his fingers to his chest. He needed to keep a constant supply of it or his lungs would collapse.

As he took the elevator to the surface, he thought of the pictures. The taller of the bunch appeared to be the strongest, the hardest to get rid of. The second, tall, but not taller than the first appeared to be slightly weaker. The third didn't seem too powerful perhaps the weakest. But the last was unnerving. A human child, who didn't look at all like any of the other gems. Why would one of those... things keep a human around? Sardonyx's mind raced for an answer. The theories became more morbid as he thought. Slavery, torture, his old memories flickered of countless conflicts. Vague memories of a table, with gems laughing as his own screams filled his head. The elevator reached its destination, and Sardonyx stepped out into a stealth plane. The screams still echoing in his head as it took off. The same desert sunset greeted him as it always did, only to fade behind the distant mountains. As the plane flew farther away, the facility flickered and disappeared in the distance.

Garnet shoved another pole into the sand with her a light tap of her gauntlets, then proceeded to beat the pole further into the sand. She then coiled the barbed wire around it.

"That's the last one, we should go back before someone sees us." Pearl looked nervously around, anticipating a wave of reporters battering her with questions, her handed fidgeted at the thought.

Steven looked out at the sea, he lost his phone when he was running from the media, he was still beaten up about how useless he had been. He practically watched as Garnet was ripped apart. He let his friends get locked. He looked down at his gem, was he worth all of this? Could it all have been avoided if he didn't exist? The beach still ruined by the wreckage of the warship. If Pearl managed to steer the ship, it would have destroyed the town. It wasn't long until someone tried crossing the fence.

"Amethyst!" Pearl yelled at her, ready to hound on her. "Where do you think you're going. No one crosses that fence, not even for a mission.

"But I have to..." Amethyst was ready to complain.

Pearl gave a cold look, "There is nothing out there but a bunch of angry humans flashing shiny cameras at us like animals. Don't tell me you're wrestling again."

No. I'm hungry. I want to eat. I can't go anywhere without you spoiling all the fun." Amethyst continued to the fence. Morphing into Pearl, imitating her voice, "

"Amethyst. If you so much as step on foot out of that fence..." Pearl 's hair shot up, her head seemed to enlarge as she kept throwing empty threats.

"What are you going to. Ground me? I can't exactly be put in a corner anymore, I'm almost 6,000 years old."

"Almost is the key word. Garnet." She called out to Garnet, who stood in front of the fence, "No one is going outside of that fence."

Amethyst grunted. "Steven did."

Pearl 's head stunted down, her eyes widened. "Oh no. Where did he go?"

Amethyst shrugged, "didn't say where."

"Steven. Did you go out of the fence?" Pearl called out to Steven from the other side of the beach, her voice became softer, as Steven looked out without saying anything. As she was preoccupied with Steven Amethyst flew past Garnet, still checking the fence for anyone trying to get in.

"I don't want to talk about it..." Steven 's face buried in his arms. Pearl tried making a point, talking about some ancient gem analogy. Steven felt sorry for ignoring her, but she couldn't solve his problem. Amethyst 's body was hurled over the fence. With a thud, she landed next to Steven. After a long talk, Pearl left him alone again. The only sound that echoed were the waves crashing in the distance. A dark mass drifted close to the shore, Steven tried to make sense of it. It looked like a person.


	3. Chapter 3 Aftermath

Garnet closed the front door, locking it. Then moved towards the kitchen, where they had tied up the body. She looked around it, but one look of the arm cautioned her to back away. "Did anyone touch that arm?"

None of the gems had laid hands on the mysterious individual. Its right arm was pale and red. The entire shoulder, it was a large reddish gem with white streaks across it. The rough edges resembled the crystals of one of the temples. "Garnet. What is it?" Pearl for the first time in a while asked a question. Garnet turned her back and proceeded into her room with a sample of the substance growing on its arm. Pearl turned back, "Who are you?" The red gem refused to reply. "Why are you here?" The questions piled up, only for the gem to give a blank stare.

The Pearl became frustrated and stormed out. "I'm hungry." The red gem uttered a small phrase.

Pearl spun around from the remark. "You're a gem, you don't need to."

The gem looked on with a confused face, "What?"

Pearl started questioning again. "What's your name?"

The gem finally gave them a piece of information. "Sardonyx." It whispered.

Pearl looked at it head to toe, trying to find the right pronoun to use for it. It looked human and appeared to be wearing clothes human males would typically wear. "She… No wait, he, or him." Pearl clutched her head, trying to piece together the small yet important detail.

Sardonyx replied, "I prefer 'he,' not 'she.'" He looked around, he was in some kind of house. "What is this place, Where am I?"

Pearl realized quickly that there wasn't much threat to their unwanted guest. "You're in Beach City, you washed up here a few minutes ago."

Steven was busy trying to watch TV, his last conversation with Connie was about the new series, he began to feel the same feeling he felt earlier on the beach. He turned when he heard Sardonyx talk.

Pearl looked at his gem, realizing it had been cracked severely. "Steven, I might need some help here."

Steven argued, "But Pearl, the marathon's about to start."

"Steven." Pearl's voice slowly grew to a venting anger.

Steven complied with an okay and spit at the gem. The crack slowly healed, the gem gave a confused look at the kid, who just healed him with saliva. Sardonyx was about to say 'ew' as a smaller gem came through with a bowl of microwaveable popcorn, stumbling on the scene of everyone not interrogating each other. She resumed to eat popcorn as if nothing happened. He was confused by the lair of the so called aliens. It seemed homely, very well kept, even had a TV and a kitchen. "Who are you exactly?"

"We are the Crystal Gems, defenders of Earth." Pearl stood tall, a bit proud of the presentation.

Sardonyx felt off about these gems, they seemed less like those in his fading memories; the result of the rigorous treatment he constantly injected. "Well, flip to the news, it's everything but that." The rope that bound him snapped like a twig, as his old strength was restored. He turned over to the news, snatching the remote from Amethyst.

"Hey!" Amethyst yelled in defiance.

But the news was just as bad as he said it would be. The government had issued a state of emergency from the attack, willing to put an end to the terror. Pearl began to freak out, beginning to rock back in forth and chanting the same couple of phrases, such as 'this is bad,' and 'what do we do' over and over again. Amethyst walked up to her and slapped her in the face. "Snap out of it."

As soon as she was gone, Garnet burst through the door that led to their rooms, looking on to the freed captive. "Pearl." She paused and then continued, "Calm down."

Her words worked almost immediately, Pearl stood up, rubbing her face from Amethyst's slap. "But what do we do. We don't have anything but the temple to use for cover."

Garnet explained, "It will take a few days for them to get to us. We have time."

 ****

 **The General looked down at his phone and shook his head, he hadn't heard from Sardonyx. He was running out of time, he needed to evacuate the city, then use the only thing that could realistically put an end to this. He talked to the director of the facility, "Get me in contact with the prisoners." The scientist led him deep into the facility, under thousands of tons of rock. Three gems grouped in one holding cell. A triangular one kept writing equations on the walls. The blue one just sat in the corner, waiting for something. The large orange one began punching the containment field, screaming at other scientists.**

"Come back here you meat bag, get me out of this!" Another shock wave bounced off the containment field, knocking the large gem back.

"Well, isn't that one happy," The General tried joking, but the scientist was nearly wetting himself. The General stood inches away from her. "I have a job for you, if you want it."

The gem kicked the field, "I don't take jobs from weaklings."

The General took off his glasses, "Well, I think I have something for you, a friend maybe." He slipped a photo through the field. One glimpse stopped the gem's attack on the containment field.

The photo was of a tall gem with a rectangular head. It almost smiled, "I'm listening."

"We both want to get rid of those very dangerous gems, particularly that one. We've already rebuilt your ship, granted, that it's a bit less complex, but usable. All I want to do is protect my people, and you want to get rid of what's threatening us. All I ask is that you get rid of them, my people need protection. We also have a gift for you." He took out a vial of red material, "Take this, it might help."The triangular gem also stood up, following the other. The blue one refused to leave. The large one ingested the entire vial. It began to grow gems all across its body, it grew a few feet taller, only adding to her size. "We're ready." The containment field dropped, and they stepped out of the cell.


	4. Chapter 4 Another Nightmare

The light seared his vision, the end had arrived. He felt his body gripped in pain. He thought that it would end differently, that he would age and eventually die. But no, that was not the life they gave him. Some say everything happens for a reason, but what happened was anything but reason. It was cruel, dirty, senseless. It began thousands of years before, with a boy playing with rocks. The earth rumbled, like the stomach of a crazed exile that hadn't eaten in years, which would best describe what he was. No family, no company, just a frail, cold, and hurt boy, picking at his eyes in the eve of spring. The ground still had an odd rumble again, which repeated for almost ten more times. Tremors were uncommon, and a steady simmer of dust sliding across a flat, empty space was an anomaly to put it in general terms. He looked up, to the mountain range close by. His fingers still clawing at his eyes for dust particles, gutting the folds of his young eyes, but what happened next would change everything. It was, a pulsating, blue light in the mountains, far brighter than any star, and even the Sun itself. But it was cold; midday in the desert is scorching, but no. The cold was gripping, the cold was fear; fear that which is unknown. The boy's eyes widened, petrified, what a modern day human would refer to as a "deer in headlights." The light erupted skyward. Erecting a column of what could only be described as a maelstrom of dust. The boy bolted away, running with the reckless abandon of a wild animal. The ground beneath him gave way, everything slowed down… A deafening roar of some being rising, higher, and higher, until there was no sound but the noise. The boy turned his head, only to see a wall of dust, nearly a mile high come down on him with the weight of a great ox. His body flailed, dozens of bones cracked and splintered, blood pulsing into his head and only one sense could be felt, pain.

"What is it?"

"I don't know, must be one of those things we see so often, what's the name?"

"Oh, that, that's a human."

The boy's eyes saw to objects near to him, they looked humanoid, but they sounded off. Metallic sounding, raspy voice, like to rocks smacked against one another. The other was smooth and clean, like silver.

"It looks, broken."

"We'll just fix it."

One larger figure raised its hand, revealing a large object that looked oddly geometric. Suddenly, the body of the boy was raised by some unknown force.

"It can be part of our "research."

The way it said research, it sounded excited, strange for its typically monotone voice.

"Sure, whatever fuels your ship?"

The figures turned, and with a tug, his body was carried adrift in the air. The dust began clearing out, the two figures became clear. One with a triangular head, with a sickly complexion, whatever it was, it surely wasn't human. The other towered over, taller, but also bulkier, and more yellow in complexion. Its head was more rectangular, and what looked like round clumps of hair jutted from the sides. A conversation echoed about what they'd do to "it" when they made it to the test site. The mountains loomed closer, revealing a large factory like compound with large tripods with large, glowing heads. They dumped raw materials into body shaped holes, thousands being made at a time. The two approached a towering individual, who began barking at them for something, in which after the length conversation, the one in charge smiled with a malignant glee, as if it just had found food.

"Take it to the research department." It groaned as if it were bored of something. "Project Catalyst is really the only place these worthless meat bags can be used for anything worthwhile. It looks a lot better than most specimens, most died pretty quickly."

The word died rolled off the giant's lips, or at least where its lips would be. Its nose was odd, translucent, and looked like a shiny piece of rock. A door opened, and inside the muffled screams of humans jingled in the background; a warm welcome to hell.

The structure was crystalline, with awfully jagged walls, and a containment field that separated other rooms, with things in that place of horrors. All there was in there eyes was pain, agony, loss. A very uncomfortable rock slab fastened the boy, still writhing to be freed.

"Hold still!"

An electric current enveloped his body, causing him to shake uncontrollably; he let out a scream In vain. The voice was the same one that dragged him to this place.

"Better."

The mechanical arms above his body assessed his limbs, then his abdomen, and then chest. The secondary hand came along, and ripped into his legs, gutting them in terrible strikes. Shock was all that kept him from fainting, or just even being alive. The machine knitted the bones back together, the muscles reassembled, ligament, by ligament. Tears streamed down, the pain was all there was, it was gripping, and it was terrible. The machines came to the stomach, where they ripped the chest open, and meticulously worked to clog up blood vessels, organizing organs, and keeping stomach acids from leaking out and destroying the rest of his body. At this point, the boy was just clinging on to his last breath; the machines sealed the chest, and repaired the wound. The arms came next. The hands bones were one by one, pulled, knitted, repositioned, and reassembled with uncanny precision. The arms were generally unscathed, so not much was done, except for a hole on the forearm. The limp body of the boy was positioned with a look of fear plastered on his face.

"No! So close too."

The boy's body twitched, by some miracle, surviving.

"This one isn't so frail. Let's see just how much more..." Scrolling through a hologram, looking at various chemical symbols and corresponding rocks. "This gem seems fitting, just the right..." after saying something indescribably low.

A vortex like operating tool loomed over, sucking particles from the boy, making a gem, red as blood, with blackened stripes was forged from it. The gem was forced into his arm, making a popping sound as it struck the bone.

"Just a few, more…"

The hologram revealed a double helix, in which the creature ripped from the backbone. The boy felt a pain that made his operation feel like a mosquito sting. The strands are replaced by some sort of crystal like form, slowly grinding in. The hologram turned red, warning the operator that the parts were incompatible. Scoffing, they just slammed the grid, and all went black.

The boy awoke in a cell, with guarded pieces of diamond, making it nigh impossible to escape. The body tried to stand, but fell immediately, lurching from pain.

"It SURVIVED!" The angry yellow lady retorted in what sounded more like a growl than anything else, flaring its fiery, yellow orbs gleaming with an inhuman hatred.

"I know, it's one of the few, the youngest as well."

"I don't CARE, I want it dead or able to pick up a weapon. Other than that, it serves no purpose."

The short one murmured softly, followed by the other stomping back in a tantrum of spite and disappointment. The other, embarrassed by this, ran to a hallway, and closed a door. The boy stared at the stone, the agate rock gleamed an ominous black and red, the color of dried blood, which seemed to be wiped clean from his body. In the same cell, two dozen other humans stared at him, confused at his struggle to get up. One in particular, caught his eye. A boy no older than him, with a blue turquoise gem on his left arm, but moved up to his face, revealing azure eyes that seemed to be full of a rare sight in that place; hope. The others varied in size and shape, ranging from lanky and starved to juggernaut. Some had extra arms and eyes. Most still trying to pick at the diamond ore bars. Some realized it was pointless and waited for the next batch of tests. Though not as painful as the first, they were still not pleasant, some were simple blood tests. These were doctors, very caring in comparison to the guards, caring for the younger members of the group. Maybe they could care, but they knew nothing of pain, true pain. Test subject, L, Sardonyx starred, with a frozen stern face. Turquoise stood, then sat next to them. Strange, he thought, as all of them were fearful of the shadow in the edges, red eyes peering through the dark. His rage was sudden, only appearing at the most unexpected moments.

"Hey."

Sardonyx didn't talk.

"Could you help get us outta here."

Sardonyx acknowledged this, he was about to say no, when he looked at the others. Hope gleamed bright in their eyes, that they were so desperate that they would follow an outcast than their strongest. He could see young faces brimming with anticipation.

"Yes," he said, with a soft, yet booming voice.

The hope in their eyes only grew, but what could be done, he was just a boy, but he had a plan. He was good at them. He took a black powder, spread it across the floor, and took the rocks he was playing with earlier, and bashed them, sparking a flaming. An incendium erupted, a column of fire. A guard stumbled in, attempting to put the fire out, only for Sardonyx to take his electric baton, and stab him with it, incapacitating him. He gestured the shocked crowd. Turquoise in glee, hugged him.

"Thank you thank you, you did it."

Sardonyx grunted, caught off guard by his friendliness, "There's no time for that!" Smacking his arms away. Turning to the others, waving them to come his way, then stopping them. A group of guards had manifested to the corridor leading to the exit. Alarms blaring at this point, Sardonyx looked on to distract them. The guards retorted curses in some unknown language and drew batons.

He focused great rage into what he did. He thought of his pain and suffering, and what he needed was a personification of what it was. He pulled the emotion out, literally. Focusing a weapon. The deep, rust red gleamed with rage, the weapons flanges were sharp blades. Between each were spikes, it was a bludgeon, a very pointy mace. The Morning Star, The Rising Sun. In one fell swing, he smashed it into a wall, shattering it at the right cleavage point, causing the wall to cave in, crushing the guards, forcing them into gemstones. There was a cell that contained a golden gem that looked terrible. Sardonyx opened the cell door. He pulled back the weapon, telling them to run. The building, or what was left of it, swarmed with guards. He ran, knowing he couldn't fight them all. They ran, but they realized it was a bit pointless, the desert plain provided no safe passages nor caves. A battle was imminent. They outnumbered them one to five, and were fully powered gems.

"Stand aside." Turquoise said with a brash confidence. The tests he endured were all related to his new found abilities, constant electrical batteries were plugged into him. With an extended hand, he closed his eyes. From his palm, bounded lightning and fulgur of an intimidating caliber, Half of the guards were sent flying in all directions, half incinerated by the death dealing torrent. Within seconds of using it, he collapsed to the ground, tired from all the power he released. The tests that they performed were geared to make them weapons and their powers were stellar. Andesite, a larger of the bunge, cracked the Earth, with four hands, beneath the soldiers, rooting them to the ground. As Aquamarine, a younger girl, flung out dust devils. The display of powers were amazing, but Sardonyx posed none, he never needed them. Taking out his weapon, he rushed into the fighting, beating the guards all down, as the elements wore them thin. They were all very exhausted, wasted all of their power. But one was left, a large one with baleful stature that looked poised to strike down. Sardonyx grabbed his hand, and as if he were made from sand, we withered into a pile of ashes. Sardonyx collapsed, closing his eyes, and drifting out of consciousness.

It was night, they managed to get to a safe rocky beach, where they camped out in the caves.

"I say we just run, chances are, they know how to find us and will probably get us by morning." Aquamarine exclaimed, flailing her messy hair, brushing it from her eyes.

"No." Andesite gestured, "We get tired anyways, and where are we gonna go, do you know where your families are?"

Everyone fell silent, arguing and bickering ceased. None of these kids has seen their parents in days, months, years. Some began to shed tears, knowing they'll never see their families ever again. Family was something Sardonyx doesn't remember well, they sort of left him to fend for himself one day, doesn't remember their faces nor their personalities, just a faint memory of home. Turquoise rose up. "We lived through that place, we made it out together, we're all survivors. The pain sometimes gets unbearable I know," tears begin to well up in his eyes, "But yes we're lost, yes we don't know where are parents are, but look at what we've done, together. We are family, we are our own, please, we can't give up yet, not so soon." "As my parents once said to me, if every Pig was perfect, we wouldn't have dogs." Smiling.

"That doesn't even make sense!" Aquamarine thinking out loud.

"Does it have to?" Turquoise sat down, covering his face with his eyes, tired of all of it all.

Sardonyx stood up, and all the murmurs fell away again, "He's right. It doesn't have to make sense, things happen to us, yes, but what do you do when you fall. You get up, suck up the pride and pain and get your worth from it, we have power, these things on us give us something no one else has, we can use these to fight against the gems once again, do you know how much good you can make from this, this power can make you legends. People will sing your names and have days of remembrance in your name, for all the good you could do. You make with what you have. So yes not all Pigs are perfect, and because of that, we get a loyal, respectable friend. I think we need that more than enemies right now." Sardonyx sat back on his rock, saying his piece. The day died out, and Sardonyx and Turquoise were night watch.

"Thanks for the help back their… What should I call you?"

"Just Sardonyx."

"No, how about Sardines."

"No."

"Onyx?"

"Definitely not."

"Agalicious."

"Get out."

Turquoise rose to his feet.

"I meant it as a figure of speech, sit."

Turquoise smirked. "Agalicious then."

"Weren't you oh so super serious back there, when'd you grow a funny bone?"

"I figured you needed it, you were crying your eyes out."

"Beat up? We just survived the worst camp ever, almost died and you tell me that a meany with an oversized ego, messy hair, and wimpy personality was a beat down?"

Sardonyx almost cracked a smile, "There is some pain worse then physical. Take me for instance, when you live alone in a desert, ready to run out of food, have no friends, nor family, it hurts bad. It is a pain you get from not having a joke or two with a friend, or having no one to help you when you're bruised. Fairness is something everyone should have."

Turquoise paused to take it all in, "I guess you're right."

"This is SO boring." A bothered Aquamarine coming back with no food or water. "No one wants to talk to little old me?" She frowned, "come on, I know you talk."

Turquoise decided to talk first. "I figured you would have food or something, you are hunting right?"

Aquamarine sat down, appearing frustrated, "Couldn't find anything in this stupid desert, I thought I saw a pig and I almost ate a snake."

"Why didn't you kill the snake." Turquoise grinned in the most annoying way he could.

Aquamarine lashed out, "It's a snake, what I suppose to do, it isn't something you eat, it's something you stay away from. Besides, it wouldn't feed anyone," she hunkered down, bowing her head slightly, "I hate it here."

Turquoise reconciled, seeing he just made a big mistake. "I just wanna go and run away sometimes, but I know we all need to stick together, we are all we've got."

"You had homes," Sardonyx said, "you know what it's like to be fair and loyal to others, you got the best out of that nightmare, got the strength to change the world; so what do you do? Use what you have to make it matter, I have no fancy powers, and I don't have many friends. But I made it work, and we survived, now we make others lives easier."

"Jeez, we need to lighten up, you talk way too much." Turquoise grinned. "We'll find a way, we always do."

Aquamarine smirked, "Well, we do have things in common. Say, can you shapeshift?"

"Shapeshift?" Sardonyx asked.

"This is going to be fun." Turquoise anticipated what it was that Aquamarine was about to show them. Her body was consumed by a blue light, and she formed into Sardonyx.

"I'm Sardonyx and I think our best tactical approach was this, this, and maybe a slice of this." She made her best impression of Sardonyx, grump face and all.

"Ha,ha, very funny." Sardonyx said in a sarcastic voice.

" ." Turquoise gave out his most hearty cackle, sounding awfully like a hyena, Sardonyx couldn't help but laugh with him.

Aquamarine then shaped into Andesite. Flexing her multiple arms, challenging everyone to a push up contest. Everyone lost. All of the gems came back. Turquoise shot a bolt of lightning, igniting the bush they used as firewood. Aquamarine rushed them, "Food!"

Tourmaline screamed like a little girl, he was startled. "Don't do that. I almost dropped the... wait. Where did it go?" Aquamarine was already eating, eating food like there wasn't going to be breakfast. She paused for a second, and snorted, "Eat up guys. Just checking for 'disease'." She smiled, food still clinging to her teeth.

Turquoise giggled, "sure you were."

Sardonyx slipped away from the camp, going behind a large boulder. He looked at his arm. Small speckles of red rock crowded the main gem. He looked to the sky. He didn't want anyone to see him like that.

 _"Blue light, the sky is lost, the heavens dark. All I see is torn apart. The machines building up a gem, made of blood and sweat,_

 _my eyes stained with my own regret._

 _My eyes stained in the blue light. Black light, a light of no return. In the end all things will burn._

 _All that remains is burning away. Not a sight unseen to make me sway._ "

Sardonyx woke up to the sound of TV static. Steven tried flipping through the channels. "Guys, the TV isn't working.


	5. Chapter 5 Second Jail Break

The facility had been left as a crater in the ground, human bodies sprawled on the floor, broken. Jasper felt it was all too easy, the launch codes for their bombs were activated, and soon she wouldn't have to worry about any of the 'Crystal Gems.' The armies of Earth came, and Jasper engaged them. It was a slaughter, tanks ripped apart like cheap, plastic toys, the soldiers ants under her. The power was amazing, she spun into a ball, and laid ruin to what was left. But there was one last thing before she left with Peridot to the ship. She pulled the General from one of the caravans. "Well, congratulations, you helped us escape. And successfully killed about 20,000 people in the process. How secure are you really? You give 'em all this security, but you can't even save them from one-"

Peridot bumped in, "Two." Jasper continued, "Two individuals, and it's all you. Maybe humans aren't so different… A hell, who am I kidding, you people are worse than kindergarten guards when they're bored." She gave herself a chuckle "No, you did this." The General cried like a child. Jasper's chuckle faded, "No, you did. You let everyone think they're safe, but you of all people know what's coming, the calvary is arriving soon, and when they're done with this place, there won't be an Earth left to save. So long, 'hero.'"

She turned back to the ship, leaving the General in the ruins of the battle. Oh God, what have I done?" He looked to the sky but found no answer, he knew what he did. And everyone else was going to burn for it.

The gems had fought off hordes of gem fragments, Pearl jutting each at a feverish pace, Amethyst whipping a crowd of them. Steven took as many people to safety as he could. Garnet fighting a dozen experiments at a time. The street lamps shut off, along with all the electricity of the city. Then a blue light followed in its wake. A blaring alarm signaled too late. Pearl screamed to the gems, "We have to leave, NOW." The shock wave was closing in fast, so they hopped in the gate and transported themselves as the light streamed them away. The city swallowed by the explosion.

"Breaking News: Beach City and 10,000 dead, thousands more injured. Riots go out on the streets as the world asks; have we gone too far?"

A purple hand turned off the crummy television in the cramped apartment, "Yes, definitely."

Pearl tried to console a very frustrated Amethyst. "They were afraid, they just didn't understand-"

"No!" Amethyst lashed out at her. "That doesn't give them the right to take our home. I can't believe I fought for these things."

Sardonyx looked down, he saw this same hate for centuries, every war spawned another. An endless cycle of death unfolding in front of him. "You can't let that get to you. It might be dark today, but tomorrow, there may be an end to all of this, it's only a step away. People know who you are, they've seen us. The whole world's watching." Garnet spoke in what seemed forever, "Don't you have amnesia or something?" Sardonyx looked down, "I should've told you first. They hired me to get rid of you all. But then I saw you, fighting to keep them safe. There is good in all of you, show them that a war doesn't have to come. I have already seen one. It doesn't end well for anyone."

Sardonyx recalled, and told his memory, of the chaos that unfolded. "The sound of war woke us all up. Cannons fired in the distance, people yelled in the background."

Turquoise woke everyone up, shaking up everyone with a thunder bolt. "Everyone, get up." He roared in urgency. Everyone still in a stupor scrambled up. The sound of artillery and explosions rocked the flat plain, and into a clear beach. In the distance, a statue stood over the shore on a steep cliff. The fighting erupting from there. The war for Earth had begun.

"We need to help." Turquoise talking over the crashing sounds, with flashes of pink light. After a long run we arrived, an army of very few against what looked like guards from the Kindergarten.

They proceeded to engage, when suddenly, a great roar erupted from the battlefield. "Enough!" The voice belonged to a tall woman, obviously the leader of the smaller force, drew a sword, eviscerating foe to foe, seamlessly. A pink shield crushing skulls. After being a bit intimidated, we ran right in, an extra dozen men easily doubled their force, heaven and earth shifting to their beck and call. After the battle, they needed to explain ourselves, the group began to realize their situation, they were fighting for the independence of this planet from interplanetary domination. Most of them were just kids, one was wielding a staff with a sword on it that clearly oversized, two others terribly short, and not many more. They needed to free this world, and they needed the help. Their stronghold was weak from overuse and the ramparts had all fallen, even the teleportation devices had fused out, probably to keep the enemy from invading them from within. The Leader spoke, "This world isn't theirs, we can't afford them taking this world, or you and all the other beings of Earth will perish. We already lost the Moon and multiple bases across this star system."

Aquamarine barked, "Speak. Normally." Everyone braced for a terrible demise or at least a yell, the one with the staff sword looked like her eyes were going to fall out.

But instead they got something unexpected; an understandable explanation. "What happened to all of you will happen to everyone else." Everyone broke out into argument upon argument. Everyone shivered, realizing dozens of people will be counting on them. Sardonyx just waited for everyone to calm down.

Turquoise was tired of waiting. "You heard her, you know just how bad it is out there, we have to stop them."

Training began shortly after, as most of the survivors did not have much control over their power, they broke a few things, but they came far. Turquoise became a practiced hand at his skill, under the guidance of this "Rose" general he was greatly empowered. His lightning could change into a ball. Aquamarine became excellent at controlling the wind and storms, someone learned how to wield fire, another could fly. One could crush mountains. But Sardonyx fell behind.

"Focus on the good," Rose Quartz repeated. Sardonyx's attempts to reverse his ability were unsuccessful, he only could remove, not heal. "Healing requires inner peace, balance." Straining under the pressure, trying to heal a fish. After a minute, he smolders the fish.

"it's pointless." He exclaimed "I can't." "The power is something learned."

A younger voice enters the training ground. An unknown voice stood uncomfortably close to the dead fish. "You learned to do this from something."

"Pe…"

"Let me explain my thinking." She glanced from her to Sardonyx, "You are angry at something, you need to find something that makes you smile." Sardonyx looked at her dumbfounded that she proclaimed the pain "learned" was easy to erase. "Go." The girl turned and went to the temple. The odd part about it was the wisdom of the young gem, which may have sounded coy at first, but was far reaching, philosophical even. Sardonyx took another fish, closed his eyes, and focused. He thought of happiness, but there was too little. The pain and hate was consuming. He closed his eyes, and all the pain, and all there was were the sound of knitting bones and the hologram firing up, a survivor. There was happiness, in all the hate, he met a funny cast of people, his family, although he hadn't talked to them much, he knew just as much about all of them as a sailor knows his ship. He focused on that family, the brotherhood of misfits. And the fish coughed and spit back to life. The end of the war was coming, everyone felt it, so many victories had to break down the enemy eventually. Turquoise readied his new weapon, a short sword with an oversized hilt. Andesite bore two pairs of metal knuckles. Aquamarine used a staff. Everyone was ready for what seemed to be the end. But the end would come brutal, and swift. "Ambush!" Screamed one of the Crystal Gem's foot soldiers, only to be cleaved apart by a laser cannon. The smell of death was everywhere, even though they stood in a strawberry field, the blood ran thick in the Earth, masking the sweet scent. Turquoise raised his hands skyward, in a swift motion, lightning arched the sky, riddling enemy fighters with a maelstrom of wrath. The wind blew sharp as a dagger, Aquamarine slicing enemies with gales knocking them out of existence. The last target was the gate between the gem homeworld and Earth. What stood in the way was an army nearly a hundred times larger, Andesite bashing out foot soldiers like toys. It was obvious they were losing. Raining death and overwhelming fury of the enemy fleet was strong, but they didn't anticipate a surprise attack. Sardonyx had slipped through the rank of soldiers, he was already at the world gate itself. A small blue gem had its eyes carved out by a larger gem, only for a red one to beat the home worlder to a pulp. "One of those things from the kindergarten, destroy it!" The way it said it made Sardonyx's skin crawl. Disgust, and it rolled off the tongue like they were nothing. It spoke again, "Meatbags will be meat bags on this shabby rock. I'll be sure to send your ashes back to your 'beloved' Earth. If you want something terminated, you do it yourself!" With a start, it formed a helmet, or horn of some kind and rammed right into him. He rolled out only to be grabbed by the leg and smashed into a teleporter. Suddenly, a violent stream of energy fired out, teleporting them both. The juggernaut was too much to handle. Every punch shuddered his small frame, battering his eyes, his arms, his chest, beating out a bleeding heart. Sardonyx threw his own, but it almost broke his hand when he did. His knuckles bore encrusted shards of onyx and agate, becoming more and more damaging, ripping at the face. He punched her square in the nose, cracking her gem into a small slither. Furious, she vaulted into a ball, slamming into the gate.

" After all those skirmishes, she sends a little human pipsqueak! Unbelieveable." The "Jasper" still embarrassed to be facing him. The portal eventual landed, taking them to a location on Earth, trees filled the air and animals foraged. Sardonyx thought of an idea. He beat the trees, then followed Jasper's erratic charges, bashing the foliage, slowing down her assault. "This won't hold me."

"It's not suppose to." The island was just a set of roots connected by trees, crushing the last root, the Jasper fell into a quicksand pit. "You have fun with that." he returned through the portal, found everyone bashing the main portal. "It's not breaking!" Turquoise shouted over the carnage, "NO dip dofus, there's nothing to break." Aquamarine interrupted. The Crystal battalion brought in a quartz cannon, and blasted the portal into the void, it was over. But the room crumbled, and crashed towards Earth. Sardonyx was hit by a crystal, and was knocked out, falling back to Earth. He woke up to victory, but it wasn't what he wanted.

Everyone was dead. Those who weren't counted bodies, or too tired to fight. The destruction was terrible, great weapons hung, severed limbs decorated the floor. Sardonyx brought himself to his knees, he saw the bodies of half of his own friends. The blood that stained his hands, it felt… good, he loved war. He cracked a smile, and like a drug, death clung to him, everywhere he went, vengeance was sure to follow. He always used the excuse that what he fought were monsters. As humans warred amongst themselves, he found that it all came with a cost, he hated himself for loving it, and slowly so did the love of his cause. He wasn't a hero, he was a conqueror, who brutally killed thousands out of the idea that he was right. He begged them not to do the same. He looked to Amethyst, "You don't want that future, it's not worth the bloodshed. It has to end, be the one who gives hope, be the hero. Being the villain only leads to making more."


	6. Chapter 6 The Second Coming

The army had been all but decimated, Jasper had torn through it like it was nothing. The march on the human's greatest city would go down in history as the day the Earth became Gem territory. The Crystal Gems looked as it descended on the riverfront. A large iron hand with a diamond painted on it flew overhead. Jasper spoke to Peridot. "Make it flip them off."

Peridot hesitated, "I don't know if it can do that. This thing is so primitive."

"As your commanding officer, I ORDER you to flip these losers off!" Jasper demanded.

The large hand stuck up the middle finger in defiance.

Garnet standing in clear view of it. Readjusting her glasses, "That was pretty unnecessary."

Amethyst's eyes narrowed, "They're going to pay for this."

Pearl told Steven to stay away. "Let us handle this."

Steven refused, "No. I'm a Crystal Gem, I'm not leaving."

Pearl gave in, "Fine, you can help." Steven held his shield ready. "Forgive me for this." She hit Steven with the butt of her spear, knocking him out cold. She proceeded to hide him.

Amethyst turned to Garnet, "What's the chances of us winning this?"

Garnet looked to her, "1 outcome in approximately 200." Sardonyx summoned his weapon in what seemed like years. The maroon morning star gave a lustrous shine, as if he just polished it yesterday. Garnet readied her gauntlets, ready for a fight. Jasper came down from the ship. Her once flowing mane disheveled and scattered, jasper gems stuck through her skin. She had grown easily ten feet taller. Jasper saw her, and completely lost her mind. She summoned her helmet and cleaved her. Garnet was sent flying through the air, smashing into a building. Jasper spun into her, wrecking the top ten floors of the building, and throwing her back into the docks. She punched Jasper, hitting her with everything she could throw. Jasper didn't feel a thing and proceeded to step on her.

Jasper crushed her chest, "This is where you belong, fusion. Under. My. Heel-" Suddenly a spinning purple ball bowled Jasper over. Amethyst proceeded to attack erratically, throwing Jasper off balance. But Jasper's eyes glowed, and a yellow beam of light erupted from her irises, knocking Amethyst into rubble. A spear stabbed at Jasper's arm. Pearl resumed to fight, but it was not enough, Jasper ripped her apart, turning her into her gem form. Garnet and Amethyst fought together, trying to overpower Jasper, but they were no match. Garnet reached out for Amethyst to fuse, but Jasper crushed her arm. Then proceeded to whale on Garnet. Amethyst kept hitting, but they were mosquito bites to the juggernaut. She just pushed her aside. Sardonyx ran and began to hammer her into submission. Jasper finally seemed to show damage.

Sardonyx told them, "Fuse! I"ll hold her off!" A massive punch sent him stumbling into the riverbed. He threw a smoke grenade, trying to concuss her. It didn't do much but slow her down. He kept hitting her, doing superficial damage.

The gem just kept hitting, and threw him around. "That was seven ribs, surrender, and I might not torture you." Sardonyx rose to his feet, "No." He threw another grenade, which detonated, throwing shrapnel all over. Jasper only got angrier and tried choking him.

"Bad idea." Jasper suddenly lost color in her face. Her knees dropped, as she grew weaker and weaker. Sardonyx focused his power, the calcified tissue growing more and more. Jasper shoved him and hit him with an energy beam. Jasper was slammed by a giant purple fist.

Sugilite flexed her arms, "I'm back!" Sugilite fought, as helicopter blades roared over. Sugilite threw the chopper at Jasper, damaging her head significantly. Sugilite then wrapped her flail around Jasper's neck. "You're not so strong, are you." Sugilite giggled. Jasper screamed, as she elbowed Sugilite in the gut. Her body grew twice as large, dwarfing Sugilite, then crushed her glasses, tore apart her flail, and ripped her in half. Both Amethyst and Garnet laid on the shore, beaten back into gems. Sardonyx was the last one standing. Jasper spun straight into him. He used his arm, in an attempt to absorb the energy. His entire body glowing a fiery red. His body igniting in a dark red light. A massive energy blast evaporated the river, leaving them in a barren sand bed. Jasper still standing, Sardonyx's body nearly consumed by the crystalline structures, the spines immobilizing him. Jasper standing over him, then turning to the city, only for a pink shield to bounce off of her.

Steven retrieved the shield, "I won't let you do this."

Jasper grinned, "Oh wow, the half baked runt decides to play. I guess I'll just have my fun." She charged him, but Steven stood his ground, and his shield repelled Jasper's spin. But after a few hits the shield cracked, and eventually broke.

As Jasper was ready to land the killing blow, a giant icicle pierced through her chest. "Lapis!" Steven shouted to her.

Lapis didn't even look at him, "I should've done this the moment you set foot on this shabby rock." She manipulated the icicle, ripping Jasper in half, from the waist, she retreated into her gem. Lapis took the gem and threw it into the Ocean.

Steven tried to get her attention. "Beach summer fun buddy." As soon as she saw him she evaporated into vapor, traveling to somewhere else before he could continue. Garnet readjusted her broken glasses, returning to her physical form. Amethyst reemerged soon after. She looked to see where Jasper had gone.

"It's over…" She looked down at Pearl's gem, severely cracked in two.

Amethyst picked the gem up. "Oh god. No... Why!" Amethyst cried on Garnet's shoulder, Steven still shocked at what happened. Helicopters whizzing around, covering the entire fight. Amethyst protected Pearl from the heresy of the choppers. They left, Sardonyx lying on the floor, lifeless, completely smothered in crystals. Peridot sent one last message to the people of Earth.

 _"Be aware, you are not safe, you are not alone. By the time you've heard this, General Jasper has issued a message to our homeworld. Your planet will be consumed by our superior race. Long live the Diamond Dynasty."_

The streets of the city raged, as they threw bottles and cans at the gems as they left the city, the people they swore to protect shunned them. "Get out of our country, we don't want you here!"

"I lost my family in Beach City you freaks!" Another citizen barked. But they all had the same message; leave them alone, they didn't need another problem. But the Crystal Gems trudged on.

"We… Are the Crystal Gems." A tear slipped through Garnet's visors.

"We always save the day…" Steven murmured.

"And if you think we can't." Amethyst said, sobbing between words.

"We'll always find a way." Garnet held Steven and Amethyst a little tighter.

"That's why the people of this world… Believe… In." Amethyst looked up, refusing to look at the cracked Pearl in her arms.

Garnet continued, "Garnet."

Amethyst continued, still sobbing, "Amethyst."

There was no Pearl to finish it.

Steven said halfheartedly, "And… Me."


	7. Chapter 7 Flickering of Life

Sardonyx lay on the parted shore, slowly losing himself to his own gem. Crowds gathered as his eyes smoldered from the loss of so much energy. The crowd blurred, flashed of light indecipherable from the Sun. His memories began to reform, another seeped back into his mind, the only thing left from calcification.

With a start, he was awake, in the desert, he couldn't believe it, it was all a dream. He resumed playing with his rocks until he looked at his arm. The Sardonyx gem was… Growing, veins pulsating and opening and closing. Veins of black stone, reaching up from the start of his elbow to the joint of his wrist. Shocked, he looked to rip it out of his arm, but it was unmoving and ingrained into him. The rusted blood red laced with rings of black and white. The look was hypnotizing, He then took a rock, and smashed his forearm. The rock in this left hand broke in two. He then tried his morning star, but it disappeared before it made contact. He then took the jagged edges of the rock, sharpened them to swords, and cut. He bled like a pig, and flesh and bone took hours to cleave through. With a plop, his arm detached. Finally, he thought, only for it to jump in place with his arm and regenerate near instantly. He gave up, the arm wouldn't go away. He sighed, falling back, hearing what sounded like trotting. A horse, driving a chariot drove straight into him. He rolled out only for more to appear, diving into a group of people, and savagely beating them. Sardonyx tried fighting them, taking out half, one cleave ripping one's eyes out. Then took his sickle sword, and stabbed another. The soldier retreated but probably not for long. He asked them what happened. The spoke a foreign language he didn't know.

"What?" He said again and again. Until the voices morphed into something more understandable.

"The Mad Pharaoh sent them."

Mad, Pharaoh."

"The ruler of this land," the boy uttered, looking to Agate's arm, brazen maroon and black.

He covered it, and told them, "Where?"

The boy pointed, "east to the River, where the ground is rich and fertile. The land of Egypt." He stared out in the distance, far in the distance, was what appeared to be an ocean, but it had another stretch of land beyond it. He walked closer, within a mile, he saw massive temples and spires of quarried marble, a palace of grandeur and of which the world had never seen.

"It's, massive." The temple erected a monument of Tourmaline, one of the escaped gems. "No, no." Sardonyx muttered, running up to the temple, he saw towering columns of flames reaching over, but below wasn't a large torch. There were bodies. Hundreds of them, fathers burying their daughters and sons. Sardonyx fell to his knees, this wasn't what he meant, not at all.

He raced through, only to be stopped by a brute garnishing a whip. "Get over here, slave." Grabbing the young Sardonyx, he may have been strong, but his power failed to work, something was interfering with them. His strength and endurance was gone. He was weak. He felt real pain again, the whip cracked his back, but it only shook him."Send him to work." They didn't even have to carry him, pain was something of a mere memory to him. For days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, years. The gem only grew, and though the people were kind, they feared his strangeness, some called him a demon. Some called him an angel, some just didn't talk at all, no one cared to understand. They didn't need to, he need to rebuild his power from the ground up, retool himself. His whip marks faded near instantly, and he found a fuel of hate to who was doing this. He the mining and dragging conditioned him. He was prepared. He manifested his weapon, now a black stained mace, flanges with reddish brown shimmer. But he needed more than just an old mace and wit. He needed tools. The papyrus he heated in a furnace, then shredded it into fine powder, then wrapped into a ball. Then stealing a few more pieces of equipment. He entered the temple, disguised as a priest, cloaked, coming to the temple. The throne was tall, and sitting on it was a short, old man, with a giant greenish purple green gem on his chest. Surrounding him were an army of physicians trying to treat something on his chest with strange prayers and medicines. Guards lined the throne, spears and swords ready and pointing to the exit. Candles and vases adorned with a thousand different wars decorated in a testament to a warrior, but an old man was all that was left. Broken, annoyed, outlived his stay.

"What do you want," the old man spat out, deeply annoyed.

"Let those people go." Sardonyx demanded.

"They look pretty happy, fed, and paying off a debt." Tourmaline explained.

"Those people are starving and dying out there." Sardonyx shot down Tourmaline's argument.

"I don't think you realize what's happening here, I came to these people and gave them a way of life, order, safety from bandits and barbarians. They gave me something in return to. Work."

"There isn't anyone or anything for miles, those people are being burned, disposed like garbage." Sardonyx was becoming angrier. He thought of the only logical thing to do, spit at him.

The man's eyes narrowed, "Kill him." The guards immediately ran to him, but he did not move , only raising his staff. The staff clack to the ground and a smoke screen filled the room. Sardonyx expelled his weapon. When the smoke cleared, the guards all on the floor, unconscious.

"Gah!" The usurper king uttered, startled by the scene.

"I won't ask again Tourmaline, let them go." Sardonyx was ready to flail his weapon square into his face. Tourmaline grinned, then chuckled, and began to laugh hysterically.

"I don't think you understand, the people here; they worship me, the build statues in my honor, and I live my days in glory, and wealth. I did my part in creating this place, they have to pay as well." Sardonyx didn't speak. "I am God here!" Tourmaline rose up, "and my empire will live forever. You can't tell me what to do." A shiny slingshot shot out of his hands, from which he pulled a rock, the rock made contact with Sardonyx's chest.

The rock detonated, sending him sprawling to a column, tearing through it like wet staggered off the ground, dark blood moist on his lips. "No, this isn't right, look out there."

"You are a monkey, just a bit stronger than the others, but nothing more." Tourmaline clearly had a terrible set of insults. He shot out another, and he dodged it only inches away, bounding him farther from the throne.

"Your power is something more than a cane to drive sheep. You know that. Look at yourself, you sit there as people are burning in fire, and you just watch, eating grapes and…" His sentence was interrupted by another bomb. He dodged faster and it didn't even make its mark. Sardonyx took his hand and made another.

"Stop hiding and get back here, maggot." His slingshot ready with another. Sardonyx hung from one of the ropes on the ceiling. He pounced on him, bashing him with the mace. He got on top of him, and repeated to beat on his chest, cracking his gem.

"Don't touch ME." he shoved his hands out, letting out a telekinetic push. Then Sardonyx felt a tightness around his throat, an invisible hand choking him. "No more party tricks!" He thrashed him, breaking vases and candles and entire columns. He tired though, his grip loosen and let go, unable to sate the need for his power. It looked as though he aged ten years, his eyes sagged deeper, his grey hair turned chalk white. Sardonyx took his mace and began to whale on the aged gem, beating him within an inch of his existence.

"Do you remember what they did to us, they treated us like sheep, cattle, less than equal. I didn't want to do this." With that he took his gem encrusted hand and punched the last column, the building crumbled. "All monuments erode to dust in the end, it's what you do, not what you build." He turned away to the exit, as his monument fell and his palace was nothing more than a memory. The people gathered at a dead God, looking at the man who defeated a god, they yelled to him, gave him food, offered him coins and other riches, just so they wouldn't be destroyed, fearing for their lives. All to which he shook his head. He left the land, he realized what he did. What it meant, he had to find the others. The world wasn't ready for them. The countless atrocities boiled in his head, although he wasn't tired, his head hurt from the sheer scale of thought. he laid by a rock, breathed a sigh and closed his eyes. That was the first time he saw the blight of humanity.


	8. Chapter 8 Revival

Steven stood at the foot of Rose's fountain, washing and polishing Pearl's gem, the crack mended, but a deep wound could still be seen. "Come on, Pearl, wake up." The gem ran with a terrible crack along it. The crack thinned, but was still deep. Garnet put a hand on Steven's shoulder, "Steven. Damage like that is hard to heal. If she comes back… She might not be the same." The gem shone with white light, flickering a projection.

Pearl stood in the hologram. Steven reached to hug her, but there was nothing but her image. "Steven? I-I, sorry, I had to d-d-do it." The hologram flickered. "I've taken too much damage, I will need time to make a body. For now, I'm stuck here." She looked at her hologram, and then to Steven.

Amethyst fell to her knees, relieved to see she was still alive. "I'm sorry."

Pearl looked at her and smiled, "There's nothing to be so-rry a-bout." Pearl still flickering from the damage to her gem. She saw this outcome, she thought that it wouldn't be like this. Her future vision was so clear once. Now it's foggy, with billions and billions of outcomes and many more alternate timelines. Steven brought his Cheeseburger backpack. Greg had given him an old radio a few days ago. He turned it on and started tuning, trying to find the news.

Reports are coming in from all major cities, strange, escaped experiments are running rampant. The army is all but decimated. Citizens are strongly advised to stay in their homes until further notice./strong Steven looked to the gems. "They need our help."

Amethyst looked at him, "They hate us. It's their problem now."

Steven sat down, "We are Crystal Gems." Steven sat only to get up seconds up, "We always save the day, it's what we've always done. They need it more than ever now. This is a mess that we made. We need to fix it."

Amethyst got up, "Count me out."

Pearl's hologram shifted to reach out to her, "Amethyst-t. Wait." She kept walking and soon she was out of sight, gone.

Garnet stopped Pearl, "She needs time."

Steven ignored the fact Amethyst just quit. "We've got a job to do."

Amethyst couldn't believe they would help those people, after all that's happened. For the first time, she was tired. She thought of the broken gem, their fight, how useless they've become. The world hated them, they didn't owe those people anything. She remembered her hole. She waited for the bombs to drop. She grabbed her friends, rocks littered on the grounds. "It's really loud," She whispered to the rock, but no answer came out. She saw soldiers being ripped apart,their gems cracked by the others weapons. A large woman stabbing with a clean sword, with a pink shield on her other hand. She ordered something and they searched the other holes. She saw her, Amethyst tried turning into a rock. She was terrified of her, she didn't want to be destroyed. She curled against the walls she always knew. The woman put her weapon away, her shield vanishing. She picked her up, and held her. Something about it made Amethyst calm, she didn't know what it was, but she was safe, and that was all that mattered. They took her, and she saw people who actually smiled at her. She didn't need to think much more, she ran, only for an escape pod to nail her in the face.

The authorities picked up what was left of Sardonyx's body. The remains stored for safe keeping and study. The two rock weighed approximately 406 pounds. The memories still flickering in his mind, his body slowly corroding into the gem itself. The last of his sight staring blankly at the researches, a look of anguish frozen on his face. Sardonyx felt his mind racing as they made another. The General looked down at his old agent, "There needs to be someone to replace him." He turned to the researchers. "You know what to do." He walked away, feeling dishonored. He killed his own agent because he couldn't wait, now he had to make him all over again. Now he was going to make The researchers took a sample and made another copy of the stone, the new gem was glossier, they named it "Agate." The gem cracked like an egg, researchers looked up in fear. The cell exploded, destroying the large crystal in the room. When the smoke cleared, all the researchers were gone, only empty articles of clothes were left behind.

"Need… More… Food."


	9. Chapter 9 The Good Times

**_Reports are coming from Plain City of an invisible threat. The entire populace has somehow disappeared, leaving only empty articles of clothing. Stay tuned for more stories on The War on Gems. Heroes seem to emerge, fighting on our side._**

Garnet punched the last gem fragment out of Empire City. "That's all of them."

Steven took his shield and crushed another, "Missed one."

The people looked at the gems, some in terror, others in awe, but they all had one defining emotion, shock. The creatures destroying their cities were saving them. The reporters strolled in, berating them with questions. Garnet pulled away a talkative Steven, stating they were the Crystal Gems, there to help. That was the tenth district they've cleared through, the fourth city they've cleared, but there were so many more. They even turned it into a game; they'd count off how many gem fragments they've collected, Garnet would always win though.

After hearing the news of Plain City, Steven went to Garnet, "You heard that, Garnet."

Garnet gave a slight nod, before a man in a suit approached them. "On behalf of our government, we need your help, we need assistance."

Garnet gave a blunt "No."

The man took something out; Garnet was ready to pound his face into the concrete. "I have a request from a guy named Sardonyx, says he knows you."

Steven and Garnet exchanged glances; Sardonyx had been missing for at least a few days, they assumed the fight with Jasper killed him. They agreed and the man gave them a ride in a car. Garnet wasn't really able to fit though; she was tall enough to fit in two large vans. She decided to ride the top of the car; letting Steven sit in the inside. The driver didn't waste any time, he floored the gas, poor Garnet being flailed by the car's speed. Garnet had never ridden in or on a car before; she had always used the gates. She suddenly remembered the luxury of her room, and the fun she had at the beach, playing volleyball with the Pizzas, even fighting all those gems on it was such a refreshing thought.

Steven looked to a store, and saw something beautiful. "Cookie Cat!" He was so excited; he had the driver stop for him to just look at it. His gem glowed again, he stormed and pillaged the store, and taking out all the change money he promised to Amethyst he'd use to buy her fry bits.

The waiter looked concerned, "Kid, where's your parents?"

Steven, too hungry to care, slammed the money, "I'll take all of them!"

The starry eyed boy made the waiter smile, "Sure kid," he counted it and gave some change.

"Thank you." Steven ran out of the store, mumbling the Cookie Cat song along the way.

Garnet stepped in, "Steven, you didn't just buy all that did you?"

Steven said excitedly, "Yeah, why?"

Garnet smirked, "We don't have a freezer."

It then donned on Steven that he had to eat all of them on his own. "Challenge Accepted." He wolfed down at least ten before he tuckered out, "Uh, I shouldn't have done that."

Garnet never told Steven how she would steal Cookie Cats from the freezer, when she heard they were out; she went back to not eating. For some odd reason, Garnet only ate things that were very sweet. "I could… Finish those if you'd like." When Steven gave the okay, it was all over for the Cookie Cats. Garnet hadn't eaten ice cream for about a month. Even though she always sided with Pearl about Amethyst's gross eating habits, she couldn't lie, she liked eating. She couldn't understand why Pearl didn't even like candy, let alone fry bits. Steven had carried Pearl around, but she was in full range of Garnet's feeding frenzy.

"Garnet!" A horrified Pearl uttered, somehow taking her form back. But she looked different. Her skin was slightly pale, her hair almost orange in appearance, a different style. She even sported earrings. The gem was still in the same place, but a small slither of a crack still visible, but it wasn't even as bad as Steven thought.

Steven looked up at the strange Pearl. "Pearl, is that you?"

Pearl looked back at him, "Steven, why are you looking at me like that." His expression bordered on confused and happy. She took one look at herself and nearly had a fit. "Jeez, I haven't looked like this since…" She looked up words, her gem shooting out a projection of Pearl fighting off some soldiers. She quickly took down the projection, "Nobody saw that." She blushed, afraid that Steven took a sneak peek into the darker history of the gems.

"Cool," Steven remarked, only making Pearl blush even harder.

She looked back at Garnet, "Oh no, not you too, why do you people put things like that in your mouth. Gets all over your fingers, and… Ewww!" She fidgeted her hands to relieve her outburst.

Garnet simply said, "I was hungry," talking with food still in her mouth." The sight made Pearl cringe.

Steven took a moment to hug Pearl; he needed a hug after all that. She spotted a few marks on his arm, and immediately sprang into action, "Steven, what happened? Are you okay? Who did this? How long was I out for?" The rapid fire questions made Steven's head spin.

Steven eventually told truth, "We went on a mission, we cleared the entire city."

If Pearl had organs, her heart would've stopped, "Oh my god, what happened-"She stopped dead in her tracks, "Amethyst, where is she?" She panicked, looking frantically for her.

Garnet answered her question, "She needed time alone, she's fine, I can still see her. But I also see someone else…"

Amethyst growled defensively, taking out her whip, ready for a fight. The pod opened, revealing a weird gem, with messy hair the color of blue flames. His skin was a fiery glow; he looked around, and asked "Who's doing that?"

Amethyst took the opportunity, "Down here." He craned his neck down, having to look straight down to see her.

The whip tightened around him, the gem struggled, "Get me out of this."

Amethyst replied, "Not until you tell me why you're here."

The gem looked down at the holes in her pants, "You're a Crystal Gem?"

Amethyst wrapped tighter, "Yeah, what about it?"

"I was just trying to get out of there."

Amethyst loosened her grip, "Where?"

The gem answered carefully, "Home world. It's really an honor to meet one of you guys. Uh, I was just uh…" He finally took a good look at his captor. She was easily a fourth of his height, her hair wild and unkempt, with purple tinted skin and a light purple hair. He suddenly found it hard to say anything.

Amethyst only got angrier, "Who are you?"

He gave him her name, "Spessartine. But I'm _not_ a fusion. I am 100% one gem, born and not so properly raised on home world."

Amethyst quickly retaliated, "Now Spepartini, you go in that little space ship thingy and leave, _now."_

"Firstly, my name isn't 'Spepartini,' and secondly, that was a one way trip. I was tired of the whole, 'Diamond Master' thing going on over there."

Amethyst let go of her whip to face palm, "Alright, you're coming with me." She didn't even need to use her whip, Spessartine just followed.

"You know what, just call me, uhhh… Soren, yeah."

Amethyst took out her whip, "Move it Spepartini."


	10. Chapter 11 Mission Complete

Amethyst walked through the woods, looking every now and then to the home world gem. The weird thing was how his body heat rose everytime she looked back. She knew when he was near. The sensation of a campfire or a fire place. Didn't know why he followed, they were probably going to imprison him, put him in a bubble and he'll stay in Garnet's room forever. But then he moved away.

She turned, "Just where do you think you're going?"

Spessartine turned, "I can feel him close, an elemental."

Amethyst was confused, "A what?"

A dozen trees fell as Garnet slammed into a purple gem, trying to fight him off, she was doing a fine job, the gem was halfway broken. Steven and Pearl followed through. Pearl and Garnet trying to make the gem retreat back into his gem, but he wouldn't go down, even after they both attacked him together.

Amethyst jumped in, "Great, just as I was getting bored…" She summoned her whip as she fought alongside her.

Pearl looked out to her, "Really Amethyst? I've been looking for you everywhere. Where were you?"

The small gem just shrugged, "Why are you back so soon?"

Pearl stabbed the crazed gem, "Why did we keep you again?"

Amethyst coiled her whip around the monster, only for it to break out and start fighting all three gems. The crazed gem tanking Garnet's assault, all the while fending off Pearl. But then Spessartine stepped in.

With a deep breath, he exhaled a wall of fire, roasting the gem. Enraged, Purple Agate beat down on him.

Spessartine summoned his weapon, a bastard sword. He took it out of his mouth like a sword swallower. He began deflecting the savage blows, even with a massive war hammer on top of him, he merely evaded.

Soren wielded his sword with a dancer's elegance; a drowning water in the midst of a crushing boulder. He wasn't perfect though, and missed a good opening to dodge a shot that would've snapped him in half.

With a clean cut, Soren disarmed the monster.

But the gem fights back with a surprise. He jumped over, and began to feed off the other gems. The color seeming to drain from them.

Steven ran up to him and threw his shield.

The gem punched him in the gut, right in the gem. Steven fell to his knees.

Pearl screamed, summoning another glaive and impaling the gem monster, then tossing him around. She wasn't dancing anymore. "If you touch him one more time," the enraged Pearl bashing the much taller gem with a newfound rage. "I'm going to rip your entrails apart and feed them to you. Then I'm going to rip the skin off of your head, and crush it, you miserable wretch!"

Purple Agate paused, "What?"

Pearl elaborated, by chopping him, tearing off all his limbs and decapitated him, then dicing him into 50 equally sized pieces.

Amethyst cheered, "You go Pearl!"

Pearl, blushed a fierce blue, "Sorry I just, lost it..." She ran to directly after seeing Steven, consoling him.

Spessartine was a bit puzzled, "Is this an everyday thing, cause I could get used to this."

Amethyst stared at him, "Dude, too soon."

His face turned red, "Sorry."

Sardonyx finally arrived, Garnet passed him the gem inside a bubble, "You wanted the gem who did this."

Sardonyx looked at it, "That's the one..."

He looked down at it, popped the bubble, and crushed the gem under his foot.

Garnet looked down, Pearl's eyes widened, Amethyst was dumbfounded.

Sardonyx shook his head, "I can't have those things running around. It's too dangerous to live." He looked around, "Someone had to do it, we can't capture anymore, not after the last incident.

Steven still on his knees from the punch, "Hey guys, I think I broke my spleen."

Pearl rushed him, yelling at him for how stupid it was for him to do.

Sardonyx looked up. "We have another mission, emergency call for Beach City. Centipede like creatures are attacking people."

After a quick briefing Sardonyx urged them back into the gate.

Pearl objected to taking Steven on any more missions. "He isn't going anywhere, Amethyst, you stay and watch him."

Amethyst rolled her eyes, "Why does it have to be me?"

Pearl bottled her anger, and paused. "Just... Take care of him okay."

Pearl and Garnet went through the portal, off to another mission.

Amethyst was not amused. At this point she really just wanted to get out of this place. It was weird, dark, and smelled funny.

She had to take care of Steven for the next hour.

Spessartine volunteered, "I can help. If you want me to..."

Amethyst shrugged off, "sure, knock yourself out."

Spessartine was going to be taking care of Steven for the evening.

Sardonyx sat at his old desk, writing in an old withered book.

Amethyst peeked over, "You have a diary? Ha ha ha." She snorted and laughed him on.

Sardonyx hid the book, "It's not a diary."

Amethyst snatched it from him, "Let me see."

Sardonyx leaped for it, "No. Give it back." She ran out of the office, but Sardonyx ran too fast and caught up to her. He snatched it back, cradling the old withered book.

"Yep." Amethyst remarked. "That's a diary all right."

Sardonyx shielded it from her. "My god, how did they live with you?"

Amethyst still wearing a smirk, "I manage. I'm curious though, what's so important about that dusty old book?"

Sardonyx put the book in his coat pocket. "You wouldn't understand..."

Amethyst challenged him. "Try me."

He already spited the purple midget for being so rude. Sardonyx took took a deep breath. He returned to his office, Amethyst running back after him. Steven walked in as well (Spessartine wasn't a good babysitter).

Steven ran next to Amethyst, waiting for the reveal.

Sardonyx finally explained. "It's a log. Sometimes I forget about what I had before all of this," he smiled to hide his growing concerns. "I guess I may as well tell my story. Not like anyone would care." He flipped open the pages. "It all started thousands of years before all of this. I was... Made into this..." he lifted his arm, showing his gem. "I'm always afraid of losing memories. I still remember playing with rocks when the sky turned white. I was taken, and... examined..." He looked down, it was getting hard to tell. His red eyes glowed again, this time in a shade of regret than anger. "They built this into me. Next thing I know I look like this. I was red and had had a gem in my arm."

Amethyst looked at him. "You're from. Kindergarten?" Her look changed, Steven looked at her. He had never seen Amethyst this serious before.

Sardonyx nodded. "A Frankenstein's monster. I technically don't even exist. I'm not a gem."

"What are you then?" Steven was hard pressed for a good story.

"Well. If you say so." He was going to tell them all of it. 4000 years ago.


	11. Chapter 12 Story Time

Sardonyx walked the dyed blue streets of a forming empire, the fake smiles of subjects masking untold fear. He hadn't killed someone in a while.

And he was bored.

"Excuse me, sir." He talked to the merchant.

The merchant looked at him, "What can I scam you for, heh."

Sardonyx took out his weapon, but he missed, for some reason; the merchant had disappeared. A blue gem stood next to him.

It was Turquoise, and he found it strange that Sardonyx was about to kill an 'innocent' man. "The mother of me, Sardines, you really should watch where you're pointing that thing!"

Sardonyx grunted, "Damn it Turquoise, can't you leave me alone for five seconds."

Turquoise grinned the same, hellish smile, "No, you're dangerous. Come on, we don't have a god of destruction yet, we could really use one."

Sardonyx sternly replied, " I'm not playing your game, go find someone else's life to ruin."

Turquoise chuckled, "I'm inviting you to my place, you need to have fun. All that brooding is bad for you. I'm still you're friend, and you kind of owe me."

Sardonyx shook his head. "You need to lay off the lead in your wine, Turquoise, you're not remembering it right."

Turquoise frowned. "And you do? That was two thousand years ago, you must go crazy too. Please, I insist, we really all really want to see you."

Sardonyx looked over his shoulder, then looked to Turquoise. "Fine."

Turquoise squealed, "This is going to be so much fun! Just like good old times!"

Sardonyx trekked up the mountain path, looking at the map Turquoise had slipped into his pouch. He looked at the mountain. "Ha Ha, very funny Turquoise." He turned, and saw it. A giant, floating fortress. The rock rose high off of the ground, miles off, a massive palace rested on it. The palace was made of gold and a lot of blue. The contrast made the azure palace extremely visible in the setting Sun. "Whoa."

Turquoise yelled at him from the fortress, throwing a long ladder down at him. "Just in time, brother. The parties just started.

After the long climb, Sardonyx came to the palace. Everyone was there. Aquamarine, Andesite, even some of the Crystal Gems. Everyone had their laughs. They all talked about their adventures from all around the world, missions Turquoise sent out for them. He had saved the world. Sardonyx smiled, for the first time in centuries. Turquoise handed out bracelets and collars as gifts to his guests. "No thanks." Sardonyx lowered it down after one of the guests tried giving it to him.

Sardonyx sighed. Aquamarine walked up to him. "What happened to you? You look a bit, less angry than usual."

Sardonyx finally said what had bugged him. "None of this is real..."

Aquamarine looked at him like he was deranged. "What are you talking about, look at them, everyone is really as you and me."

Sardonyx denied it. He pointed to a gem a few feet away. "He died in the first fight with home world."

He walked to another seat, "She died in my arms... Battle at the Strawberry Fields." He shuffled towards another.

"She was crushed by a warship..." He pointed to all of them. He was at a party of ghosts.

Aquamarine looked at them in horror. "Oh me oh my." She poked Andesite. "You're real, right?

Andesite rolled her eyes, "I never died in the War, stupid."

Sardonyx stopped. He look at two smaller gems dancing. He thought back to the last battle. The eye clawed out, the fury of the red one as she pounded the soldier's gem into mush. He dropped to the floor, the images stopped flickering. The castle was empty. The fire died out. He saw all of them... The same way he counted their bodies... Broken shards at his feet.

Turquoise's mad laugh echoed in the now dark castle. The three chased him deep into the castle. The Devil's scream only made the now dark labyrinth more chilling.

"Turquoise." Sardonyx finally made it to the throne.

Turquoise sat on the blue crystals, it looked like he was part of the throne itself. His face covered in a spiked beard, his flesh slowly losing the battle for his body. "You wanted me, here I am." The throne activated, it began cutting at the crystals, polishing his beard away. The crystals slowly retreating from his body. " I've spent centuries making machines like these. But I need more."

"I'm dying, I need to find my cure." Turquoise turned stern, his grave voice booming.

Sardonyx felt like he'd had enough of him stalking for years. "Damn it Turquoise, why can't you just die like everyone else?"

Turquoise stopped him. "I've been trying... Nothing's working. I can't die. There are thousands of people depending on me. I expected you of all people to know, people helping others... It's what keeps me going Sardonyx... I still think about it... Death. I don't know what will happen to what I've made when I'm gone."

Sardonyx shook his head. "You have to believe Turquoise. Nothing lasts forever, not even 'gods' like you."

Turquoise frowned, "You don't get it, do you. I'm not Tourmaline, Sardines. I'm the gem that gave them fire, I gave them choice. But I'm afraid they'll go down the wrong path, I want humanity to grow, I made cities like those to set as an example, to prove humans can do good. But it doesn't exclude the fighting. I've stopped countless conquerors from burning down that city. They need a beacon of light. I need to be there, they only learn from one thing and one thing only, pain. I have to give them something to believe in, to fear..."

Sardonyx looked at the gem. "This isn't free will. You can't choose what's right and what isn't."

Turquoise gawked. "You sure know what's right, the symbol of death and destruction. All you do is spread chaos and disorder everywhere you go. You're not a hero, you're a monster. A freak, a fluke of nature, and your power inspires terror, not control. I used to think you were my equal, Sardonyx." Large metallic spheres orbited his head, "I guess we don't see eye to eye."

With the snap of his fingers, an arc of lightning zapped all three of them, knocking them down. Turquoise pulled out a hologram, programmed something, and the collar around Aquamarine's neck turned on. Her eyes went blank, she started stabbing Andesite, keeping her down. Turquoise closed in on Sardonyx.

Turquoise snickered. "Oh, don't tell me you gotten sloppy, have you?" In flash of lightning he was in front of Sardonyx, he slashed him with a short sword and sword of Eastern design.

Sardonyx tanked the damage, and began slamming his morning-star into Turquoise's face, shattering his jaw.

He circled his opponent, but Turquoise struck like lightning, a blue blur that ripped at his flesh. His erratic style so fast that Sardonyx fell to his knees, coughing up a black substance. Turquoise cackled. "Oh don't you sleep on me, old man!" He lifted Sardonyx with one arm. "I'm not finished with you yet..."

He threw Sardonyx into the wall, cracking the wall and his gem. Sardonyx let out a yelp from the crack. Turquoise dropped Andesite, ripped her arms off and proceeded to beat her with them. Sardonyx's sight blurred, and everything went black.

A tall figure with four arms slumped in the corner. "Andesite?" Sardonyx looked over at his old friend.

"The hell of you've been?" Andesite's said, her old, broken voice faltered.

"What happened, while I was out?" Sardonyx asked."What happened?"

Andesite said, "I really don't know. It all started. After the War. We all made it back to the temple, but Turquoise acted stranger and stranger." She vaguely answered, coughing out a black substance. "He wanted to show the people of Earth something. He even asked that Quartz lady to use the portals, which wasn't too hard. But he went to all the previous battlefields. He began collecting mementos, weapons advanced so far beyond anything we'd ever seen. Laser cannons, energy batons, and those spheres he keeps with him everywhere he goes. He ordered us to find other humans, and make what he called a civilization."

"He ordered us to make ourselves kings, and gods to them, guiding them. But after a while, the others began controlling them, making empires and losing sight of the original goal. It was all part of his plan; he wanted us to fall on each other, make alliances, and fight. After the wars boiled over, he easily found us and made most of us his personal servants." Andesite took a pause, as if remembering a bitter memory. "What about you? How did you make it out?" He asked the giant. "I ran, trying to leave them alone, but they hunted me… He's scared of you."

"Me?" Sardonyx looked up at Andesite.

"He saw potential in you the first time you spoke in front of us all; you were a leader, a guide. You were the strongest of us all, without flying or shooting lightning, or super strength. You knew what true power was." Andesite said in a growing tone.

"No, Andesite… Don't do this, please… Don't leave..." Sardonyx said to the patient giant, a lone tear rolled down his rough skin. Andesite looked at him with all four of his eyes, near the point of tears, "No one is left, people roam their planet, in fear. Give them something to fight, they're good at that." Sardonyx looked at Andesite, one of her eyes badly damaged, her arms missing fingers or entire hands, her once long hair balding and thinning out. She looked like he had fought a thousand wars. A broken idol that stood in a corner, forgotten, left to be consumed, literally. The gems on her body completely corrupted her limbs, her legs rooted to the ground. He looked to his own hand; carving through the flesh was the blackened red veins moving across his arm.

"Me, I'm outta… Time… But you… You still got fight in ya. Give em hell… F...or me." Andesite's old, granite face slowly crumbling away, and Sardonyx didn't know what to do. "I can't do this alone, I need help. Please… Don't go." Sardonyx lost all constraint, tears rolled down his face. His last friend. Gone.


	12. Chapter 13 The Rest is History

Sardonyx knew he couldn't fight Turquoise alone, he needed help. He scoured the Earth, looked for any of the others, but it appeared he was all alone. Or so he thought. He had been at sea for months, his arm's veins grew his hand into a tough onyx black, with spikes of red sard. It hurt every time he clutched at something. Another storm swept his small boat. The sway of the waves only made his eyes heavier. He hadn't slept for a month, and his gems life absorbing properties tired him faster. He spent most of his nights plucking individual stony veins from his now completely corrupted right arm. The gems slowly dug into his flesh, every single day, they'd shift closer and closer to a joint. The joints would stiffen and eventually lost most mobility in his elbow, only being able to use it in four directions. The cancerous growths only grew faster. He dreamed of them, the parts slowly consuming him. He dreamt of Tourmaline, rotting on his throne, all the vases faded or broken. He dreamed of Andesite's statue still standing at the edge of the street, her last smile fading away. Then he dreamt of Turquoise. Turquoise's madness, speaking of others as ants and flies. The gems of his body he flaunted, the worst nightmare of all, Aquamarine's blank stare, soulless and empty, with everyone's faces cycling around. His failure. His folly. He did this, he should have been there. He could have stopped him. Now he wanders again, lost, cold, and for the first time in nearly forever: afraid.

With a start, Sardonyx jumps from his nightmares, batting his head with the sail of his ship. "Ow," he murmured, rubbing his head. An island was in clear view, a perfect exile. He landed on the beach, and sat. He looked out into the Ocean, and thought. Thinking for nearly an hour, until a foot step. He snapped his head to the sound. A small human child was staring back at him. Adorned on him was some sort of paint, and he brandished a spear at his side. He ran back into the trees. Sardonyx ran out to him, trying to find him. The boy spoke in an unknown language, but Sardonyx's gem glared and again he understood.

"Leave me alone." The boy screamed, sprinting away.

"Wait." He said, dashing after the boy. The boy paused in front of a mountain. Praying to something. A ray of sunlight gleamed down. A half gem stood there, with punch daggers ready. But as soon as she saw Sardonyx, her blades faded away.

"You're alive?" the gem asked, as if she was seeing an illusion.

"You aren't dead?" Sardonyx replied with an equally puzzling question.

"Well, it's a long story. Don't think we really talked that much back then." The odd gem took something from the ground, a stick, stuck it to his nose, and sniffed. "Oh, huh." She relaxed.

"Wait a moment." Sardonyx's memory was fuzzy, but he remembered one of them wielding fire. The golden gem was a dead give away.

"Citrine?" He asked.

"In the flesh-o." The stuff she took was really starting to affect her seemed less ready to gut out necks and more like sitting on the beach meditating.

She was one of the prisoners of war the Gems freed from the facility, he must've spent eons on this island.

"I'm not fighting," She said. The blunt response took Sardonyx off guard.

"Could you at least tell me where I can find other gems…" He offered.

"I don't like saying no so much. You see, when you're locked up for as long as I was, you would hate war with every grain of me. I enjoy the finer things in life. Like see that boy? His parents lead the tribe here. They're awfully nice people, never too angry." Her mellow glow gave off a regal gold as she began to say no.

"What about…" Sardonyx used this for every bargain he'd heard on Earth. Money, power, ideals, none of it mattered, he was fighting with another ghost.

"I'm really sorry about your world, but I just… can't." The gem looked away.

Suddenly, the winds changed, it's song roaring, lightning kissed the sea. In the distance, a dark shadow descended. The face of a dragon. One of Turquoise's devices strapped to its neck. The sea tainted blood red. Deathly pale. It reached its hand to the sky. A meteor rained down, boiling the water.

Citrine drew her punch guards, retracting the blades, "I've got this." She ran across the water, with a burning trail following as she charged into him. He sent a shock wave of fiery material, steam rising to incredible heights. The fog began to form a vortex. Citrine raced around her opponent, hitting him with a thousand slashes. The half gem fell back, escaping in a column of flame. Citrine ran back to the shore, burn marks laced her body, not healing. She nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

He used this to his advantage. "You can't keep fighting like this. Let me." He stood at the shore, as another shadowy beast descended to where the Ocean embraced the shore. He summoned his weapon, and stood against this monster. He was dwarfed by it, but he wouldn't let that stop him.

He began to scale the ceature, knocking it down with precision strikes. Finally, it fell to its knees after hundreds of swings, and he reached for its beating heart. Soon, he felt its power sap into his. The power was nauseating, but good. When the smoke cleared, it was nothing but ash, and he had felt his abilities surge.

He convinced her after about five more hours of arguing. Some of the humans wanted to help. He reluctantly let them come. He set sail. He fell back into the darkness of the captain's quarters. The pain of his arm only grew. It pulsate and throbbed with a delirium of pain. He spent what seemed a thousand restless nights until he passed out from exhaustion.

More dreams befell him. Those of a final battle. Of blood of many on his hands. He felt a thousand pounds of regret of ever even stopping to assist the rebels all those years ago. He'd let his stupid heroism endanger of all his friends, his family. Now he was alone. In a dark room. With the only person to blame being himself.

Citrine had switched the course to Kindergarten.

He was too tired to be angry, all this thinking had finally withered at his patience. He remembered all the books at Alexandria. The years of human philosophy. Where did it all go wrong? The familiar place reeked in the absence of all life. The air, dead. The trees, without any leaf or foliage. Even the Sun was dim under the ever present clouds that lingered there. He ran in there.

His sight overcome with red. The flashes of his first moments. The screams and bones being knitted back in place. Then, he saw the table. The place where he had been grown into existence. He looked all over. Maybe there was something that could fix him. Something, anything.

Citrine tied to tell him nothing was there. But his eyes burned a scarlet red. A red so vibrant it could tear through walls. He was desperate for a hope that he could be fixed.

That hope would never come...

He set sail, and knew it would take months of preparation to fight Turquoise. So he plotted his plan in the dark of his chamber. Waiting...

The shores of silence loomed; the battle was near. The structure was already open to us all. It was a trap. Turquoise knew he'd be back.

Lightning fell in rows. It only took a second. One of the spheres had been disabled. But a score of men had fallen.

Aquamarine was freed, along with the others that were still alive. Turquoise was just too much. He seemed to move heaven and Earth. Every word a thunderstorm. Every hit a mighty mountain. The spheres had made him invincible. Sardonyx dropped a smoke bomb. Giving him enough time dismantle another sphere. It seemed in vain. Everyone fell easily. Soon, it was just the two of them.

"Here we are again, Sardonyx. You aren't strong enough. Not even with all your fancy smoke and mirror gadgets. It's over. Give up."

"No Turquoise. As long as I live, this World isn't yours." Sardonyx stood against certain death.

"Pity And I was starting to think we could get along..." He shot out a torrent of lightning.

Sardonyx was fast, but he wasn't nearly fast enough to dodge the tendrils. He was thrown against the wall. Sardonyx fought back. His eyes glowed a brilliant red, and shot a concentrated stream of energy.

"Heat vision, that's new." Turquoise chuckled as he descended upon his prey. The two lock weapons. Toe to toe. Neither willing to let the other corrupt their defenses. An impasse. It wasn't until the lightning flashed and blew Sardonyx through a wall.

Sardonyx got up. "Come on." He yelled as he charged into Turquoise. He nearly eviscerated him, when Sardonyx leaped over him and swung at his orbitals. His face was now almost gone. His skull now visible.

"Stop, Sardonyx. You know you can't win, you can't beat me." Turquoise calming responded, as if reflecting.

"I don't care!" Sardonyx summoned another mace and attacked at various angles. Turquoise had been training for centuries. He was skilled beyond reason. Even sshots that would stun an average being did nothing to him. Turquoise just couldn't die. Turquoise threw a pillar at him. Sardonyx tore through the first, and evaded the second and threw back the third. The pillar causing Turquoise to take a step back. Sardonyx ran into the opening, but sooner realized it was a feint. Turquoise slashed at his thigh. Sardonyx was running out.

Turquoise was fatigued. His perfect attire tattered, his once royal face defiled beyond recongnition. Both of them threw another swipe, connecting with a head shot and back shot respectively. Turquoise fell to his knees. Sardonyx quickly recovered and went for a killing blow. He was clipped by another lightning attack. The energy was beginning to rise. He was going to blow. He moved as fast as he could discharged. Putting all his energy into one last ray. The heat melted pillars and downed the entire structure.

Turquoise was ready to end everything. The heavens lost all azure color. The stars lost all lustor. Everything was dark. The sky seemed to tear itself apart as it buffeted the Earth with ten thousand lightning strikes. Turquoise screamed in rage and desperation.

The smoke cleared. Sardonyx was exhausted, and Turquoise walked over to him. Both swung at each other. They didn't even need weapons anymore. Turquoise caught Sardonyx with a punch to the solar plexus. Like that, it seemed over.

Turquoise summoned his weapon from his hip, and was ready to end him. "Anything you want to say. I'll might make a play out of this later.' He laughed himself almost to death. His eyes completely smothered by his lunacy.

"The Earth will never be yours. You can end me. But you won't end these people. The people of Earth are too strong. They may not be built for war. But they have something you will never have."

"And what would that be?" Turquoise was amused by this. He didn't realize Aquamarine was right behind him.

"Hindsight." Sardonyx smiled.

Turquoise suddenly froze, a blade erupted from his chest. It then slashed to his gem, destroying him.

Sardonyx looked off into the Ocean, and back at Aquamarine. He couldn't think of anything.

"We're free."


	13. Dinner Party

Pearl and Garnet jumped through the portal, having trapped another hundred gem fragments. Pearl went straight to Amethyst. "Is everything okay? You didn't cause any trouble right? Steven? Where is he."

Amethyst just about knee deep in questions just put her hands up, "Everything's fine, nobody's hurt. I can't believe you still think I can't take care of Steven."

Pearl had that face she put on that substituted for rolling her eyes. "I cannot exaggerate how indubitably forlorn and consumed with paranoia I had become that you put into effect some horrid fate for Steven."

Amethyst sighed, even after a thousand odd years, she still couldn't understand Pearl. "Sure, whatever."

Pearl leaned closer to Amethyst, "You know how I get, Amethyst. I just wanted to be sure."

Garnet had brought pizza, and Steven asked, "Wait, Garnet, where'd you get it, I bought all those Cookie Cats with Amethyst's-"

Amethyst was not at all amused that Steven just took all the money he had promised to buy her fry bits with. "You what? Not cool, Steven."

Steven gave a small shrug, "Sorry, I was just hungry, and I saw Cookie Cat and I..." He felt terrible for taking Amethyst's things, even if she won that money by betting that Greg couldn't fit Onion 's Dad's ship in the car wash.

Pearl looked like she was going to try to say something but realized that Amethyst was right, Steven really shouldn't have done that. Pearl finally spoke, "Just take the pizza."

Steven turned to Garnet to ask her again. "Really, how did you get the pizza?"

Garnet answered softly, "Greg sent us some money."

Steven breathed a sigh of relief, his face turning from baggy and sleep deprived to chipper and happy, a smile hanged from ear to ear.

Pearl looked at Steven 's face, his smile. She remembered that smile, it was Rose 's smile; the same smile made her quiver. "I'll be in the... Bathroom, bye." She quickly walked straight into the gate and left inexplicably.

Steven figured it was nothing, Pearl didn't like seeing food, much less people eat it.

Spessartine looked at cheese covered mess with curiosity. "What... Is it?'

Amethyst answered almost immediately, "Pizza, man, it's one of best thing people here have ever made, no lie. Try some." She stuck the triangular piece of food in front of his mouth.

Spessartine disagreed, "My gem is right there..." Amethyst shoved it into his mouth, he stopped fighting it as soon as it touched his tongue. "It's... Awesome!" Spessartine still had problems with his English, certain words were hard to find, and sometimes he talked slow. Very slow. Like if it were any slower he wouldn't be able to finish a conversation within entire hours.

Amethyst mentored him on how to eat. "You chew it through, like this." She showed the movement of a jaw opening and closing. Spessartine could get used to eating. He found it weird that this stranger was talking like she knew him, it felt kind of nice.

Steven felt that nice, warm feeling in his stomach as he ate, everyone was sitting around, happy, even after all that happened. He quickly finished his pizza, downing it really quickly.

Garnet sat next to him, looking at the pizza, smelling it, and eventually putting it down, it didn't taste sweet enough.

Sardonyx sat last, looking down at the pizza, taking one and eating it... And then another... And then another... Soon enough he downed an entire box of it. "Sorry..." He looked down, "I just let it loose.

Amethyst took the opportunity to get back her money. "Hey. I bet I could eat more pizzas than you."

Sardonyx stopped dead in his tracks. And craned his neck to her, standing up, revealing a stout body at least a foot taller than Pearl. "They used to call me 'El Glotón del Mar' for a reason."

Amethyst placed her bets, "Fat guy of the Sea isn't very flattering. Anyway, I get 20 bucks, and if you win, you have to take care of Steven-"

Pearl darted her head and marched back into the office. "No, you are not betting Steven on a consumption contest. No. I won't allow it."

Amethyst snorted as she laughed, "Don't worry, I know I'll win."

Sardonyx shook his head, murmuring something in what Amethyst could only assume was Latin. "Alright, I accept."

Steven held the competition, and soon, the pepperoni was flying as they ate in the fiercest competition of eating Steven had ever seen. Even Fun Land's hot dog competitions never got like this. A single pizza was left, and Amethyst watched in horror as Sardonyx wolfed down the last pizza.

Amethyst looked to Pearl, "Opps."

Pearl grabbed Amethyst, "I thought you had this Amethyst, why did you do that, have you lost your mind.

Amethyst challenged Pearl. "You did stop me did you?"

Pearl took out her glaive, "Do you wanna take this outside, because I will."

Garnet stepped in. "Pearl, you're overreacting."

Pearl 's head grew wide. "He's mi-" She looked to Garnet, she'd rather not pick a fight with her. "Fine." With a defeated sigh, she sat on the couch.

Amethyst looked at him. 'You cheated, I know you did."

Sardonyx looked below Amethyst, a good three and a half pizzas below her. "No, I think you did."

Pearl wanted to protest, but she wouldn't dare cross Garnet, or the slightly intimidating gem that stood in front of them. Amethyst looked down, "Well, a deal 's a deal, you take care of him, for today at least." She looked at Pearl, who looked like she could pull out her glaive and hack her to pieces. She mouthed her words. 'You are so dead.'


	14. Bet is a Bet

Sardonyx was going to be stuck with Steven, which Pearl objected to in every way possible. "I'll take you on a mission, we could go and buy some of that ice cream, how does that sound?" Pearl wasn't just worried, she was anxious and didn't trust this gem, he was really strange, and if he knew anything about the history of the gems... Pearl shuddered at the thought of Steven knowing the horrible atrocities of the gems.

Steven just put his foot down. "I think I'll just stay here, you know, I'll be safer, you know how bad it can get on those missions. Besides, Amethyst lost the bet, it only made sense." Steven remembered his first 'test,' when they lied to him. Honestly he didn't want to go on missions anymore, he'd probably get them in trouble.

Spessartine again wanted to take care of Steven. "I can watch, he'll be safe." He reassured Pearl with a nod, something Amethyst taught him. He looked terribly stupid.

Amethyst snickered at his failed attempt at being human, only making his face a golden brown blushing violently. Even his hair burning slightly brighter. She turned to Pearl. "He'll be fine Pearl, this place is safer than a mission." Amethyst motioned to the portal. "We got a corrupted gem to catch," with a 'wee' she ran through the gate.

Garnet shook her head, grinning, as she followed in after her. Pearl followed, but she looked back at Steven. Only for a purple hand to grab her into the portal. Spessartine charged into the gate, only for it to close, as he smashed into a concrete wall. He turned to the scientists managing the gate. "Really?" They reactivated the gate and Spessartine walked slowly in, rubbing his face from the pain.

Sardonyx looked down at Steven, he didn't know how to care for kids, hell, he doesn't even remember the last time he was one. "Uhh, I could show the facility, if that seems cool."

Steven enthusiastically smiled, eyes starry, "Sure, I'll go."

Sardonyx showed him around, he crossed his fingers hoping he didn't touch anything too fragile. The facility was massive, a zoo of gem fragments, Centipeetle fragments, some corrupted gems, any a lot of other experiments.

Steven looked around. "Geez, what happened to these guys?"

Sardonyx shrugged, "I happened to them. Most of these gems endangered the people of Earth in some way. I hunted every single one. But ever since that 'incident,' thousands of corrupted gems have been freed, and now the Crystal Gem's have a real challenge, do what I used to do for thousands of years to hundreds of thousands of equally dangerous gems." He sighed, "I really wonder how I'll ever get them all back, I really was hoping to retire," he snickered, "guess I won't." He coughed a bit, coughing into his arm, still very corrupted.

Steven asked a question, the same question everyone always asks about him. "What happened to your arm?"

Sardonyx grunted. "Nothing."

Steven persisted, "Come on, you already told us the story about how you got here. Why not how your arm got the way it is?"

Sardonyx looked at him. "Do you have friends, Steven, I mean, other than the Crystal Gems?"

Steven was a bit baffled by the strange question, "Yeah, why?"

Sardonyx lamented, as if remembering a terrible memory. "Hug them a little tighter when you see them. When you live as long as I have, you get lonely. My book, my diary, really... Is the only thing left of them..." His face darkened, and the large gem suddenly turned more stoic then Garnet.

Steven questioned on, "Who?"

Sardonyx looked into the young boys eyes, his innocence so strong, he saw hope, a beacon of it. He gave one last answer. "Memories." He turned and walked back to his office, Steven still following him, asking him how his arm got like that, he still prodded for the truth, but Sardonyx just stomped back into his office. Steven entered.

Steven looked at him, the giant gem huddling a large piece of his own life in his hands, his testament, his thought, his life, bound by a flimsy leather covered book.

Sardonyx painfully scrolled across the pages, each one upsetting him even more, he stopped on one of the pages, he stared at it forever, a single red tear fell from his face. He handed it to Steven, "read from there, all will be clear." He labored his breath as tears dripped down his face, the color of dried blood.

Steven took the book carefully, and read the page.

...

The story was epic, the tale so tragic, Steven couldn't help but cry with him. "Why did he do it?"

Sardonyx looked up, "I don't know, he just, did." He took Steven by his shoulders, "Take comfort in your friends, Steven, remember them, you and me, we're cursed. We do what we can to save the day. But no one's coming to save us." He wiped his face with his hand, "Please, never forget, because the day you forget, is the day you'll never forgive."

Just in time, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl came in through the gate. A Spessartine jumping through the gate, covered in slime. "Let's never do that again, okay?"

Steven ran over and hugged all of them, he hugged them harder than ever. Pearl frowned, something was wrong. "Steven, are you okay?"

Steven looked up, "I've never been better. Uh, can I see Dad."

Pearl realized he was missing Greg, "We don't know where he is."

Sardonyx opened the door, "I do."

Pearl frowned. "What did you show Steven, he only gets like this when he's sad."

Sardonyx didn't lie. "I showed him history."

Pearl had a horrified expression, Steven wasn't ready to see the bad side of history. "How much did you show him?"

Sardonyx answered. "My story." He looked down, realizing he may have done the wrong thing.

Pearl glared at him, "You miserable..."

Garnet stopped Pearl from going any further. Pearl was ready to hound on him for what he showed Steven. Garnet could almost see Sardonyx's pain. "He's punished himself enough."

Pearl realized what Garnet meant, as she kissed her forehead. The pain swooped in, and the story flushed through Pearl with a mighty surge. She understood why Steven was next to tears. "Alright," Pearl wiped her eyes, "Let's find Greg. For Steven."


	15. Chapter 16

Steven stood at a car wash, on the outskirts of Bay City. A van with a 'Universe' posted over it. A man with a farmer's tan, and long hair stepped out. He smiled as Steven ran towards him. It was Greg.

"Dad!" Steven hugged him tightly.

But Greg hugged him tighter, sobbing, "I thought I lost you..."

They hugged and talked for almost the entire day. The Crystal Gems and Sardonyx looked out on them. Sardonyx looked on at Steven; he was going to be a leader of the Crystal Gems. But can he really do it? He has only the right heritage to go on. He isn't a warrior, he's never protected Earth like he did. He was a Captain, one of the heads of her army, and her barely capable son is going to be the Guardian of Humanity? He couldn't allow it,he needs to be prepared, trained.

Steven looked at the strange, checkered board. Pieces of black and red coloring positioned perfectly in place. On the other side of the board, Sardonyx stood at the opposite side of the board, taking the black pieces.

Steven took the red ones, "Do I go first or?"

Sardonyx gestured for him to go first, Steven moved a pawn foward, two paces. Pearl did show him how to play and sometimes showed it to him by challenging Garnet.

Sardonyx moved a knight, the knight landed in front of one of his pawns, "Your move."

Steven moved his own knight, mirroring his move.

Sardonyx moved another pawn.

Steven took his pawns to the center, trying to take the center of the board. Sardonyx took his pawn, only to lose his knight. Sardonyx took his bishop and struck the opposing pawn, but Steven attacked with another bishop. The game increased in speed, their moves happening one second apart. By the end, all of their pieces were gone, and only rooks and queens were left.

Sardonyx was shocked by Steven 's tactical approach, the end game seemed bleak, "A stalemate."

Steven smirked and moved into the next place, "Checkmate."

Sardonyx shook his head, as he destroyed his last bishop, "Check."

Steven pointed at the queen at the end of the board. "Checkmate."

Sardonyx nodded. He was never beaten, he had been studying chess for centuries, he invented the western version. Steven was at a grandmaster 's level, at such a young age. He inherited his mother's tactical mind.

Pearl looked confused as well, Steven never played like that, he made Garnet look like a novice,and she knew every move in Pearl's arsenal.

Pearl took Steven, she didn't trust this strange gem. "Go and do whatever you do with Amethyst." Steven ran over to the exit of the office.

Pearl and Sardonyx stood alone in the facility. Pearl proceeded to talk. "What are you doing? She said with a saterical sarcasm.

Sardonyx answered in short order. "I played a game if chess with Steven."

Pearl narrowed her eyes, her hair seemed to change with her suspicion. "Why are you so nice to him, your doing all these things with him. You don't even know him."

He sighed. "It gets lonely, you know, when your like him and me. You watch everyone in your life slip away, then tell me you don't need a friend." He showed him his gem, taking off a portion of his armor. "This thing is killing me, but he doesn't have it like this,he deserves as much kindness as we can all give. He can be different; he doesn't have to be like me, he can be a savior, a guardian. I just want to make sure he's ready. Don't you?"

Pearl started to get hostile, "Your testing him?! Why would you do that? Can't you see he's just a kid, he can't do anything."

Steven was an earshot from her, she closed her mouth, realizing what she just just looked down and walked away.

Pearl ran out to him, "Steven, I didn't mean-"

Sardonyx butted in, "Yes you did." Pearl glared at him. "I felt that emotion all the way from here."

Pearl breathed, trying not to retaliate. "I just don't want him to get hurt..."

Sardonyx shook his head. "If he doesn't learn about what's going down, there's going to be a lot more people hurt than him. We need someone who can heal."

Pearl got ready to argue further, but she ran off to find Steven.

Amethyst watched as she ran down the hall. She looked down the hall to see Sardonyx. "Geez, what's wrong with her?"

Sardonyx shrugged, and Amethyst went back to whatever she was doing.

Steven wallowed alone, as Pearl stormed back out with him. He averted his eyes from her. "Leave me alone."

Pearl tried to reason with him. "I didn't mean it like that. Your very valuable. You mean a lot to all of us."

Steven shook his head,and looked at her with a look she never thought Steven would feel from her:anger. "I guess not. The test you gave me, it was all a lie, a sham. You don't even believe in me enough to go on a mission. I'm not my mom, I'll never be..." He put his head under his arms.

Pearl felt awful. Steven was angry at her. "I didn't... Steven, please, just...I wanted to... Uhh." She just couldn't find anything to say, she was terrible with emotions, especially Steven's.

Garnet stepped in just in time, and consoled Steven, whispering, then shush in Pearl away. Pearl felt defeated, by herself.


	16. Chapter 17

Garnet lectured Steven, he didn't listen, Pearl's words still clung to his mind, even if Garnet ' s words were comforting. He sat on her lap, he took both of her hands. "This is Ruby," he took her right hand, " This is Sapphire," he took her left hand.

"Yes, Steven." Garnet reassured him.

Steven told her what bugged him the most. "I'm just not strong enough. What if Jasper and Peridot come back? What if they have an army? What if you get hurt? I just want you guys to be okay. I want to help, but I don't think I can..."

Garnet gave a smile, "I'll always be okay, we're gem warriors."

Steven doubted this, "Amethyst said the same thing that time she cracked her gem."

Garnet gave a dry laugh, "Just worry about the people of Earth, we'll all be okay." She tucked him into a bed, and patted his head, and he was off to sleep, but he needed more time to finally lose consciousness to fall asleep.

...

Steven woke up to a pain in his gut, he clutched at his stomach, his gem still aching from the punch Purple Agate beat into his abdomen. He lifted his shirt, and saw purple veins pulsating from his gem. He panicked, screaming for Garnet. She ran to see him writhing in pain, picking him up. Pearl and Amethyst followed. "What's wrong with him?" Amethyst asked in a frantic state.

Sardonyx ran down after. All of them went through the gate, and into Rose's fountain. Pearl looked at her skeptically. "Are you sure this will work?"

Garnet dropped him into the healing waters. Steven howled in pain, "Ow, ow, please, make it stop." The veins didn't go away.

Sardonyx knew what to do. He took out one of his syringes. At first Pearl stopped him. "What are you doing?"

"Saving his life." Sardonyx took the syringe, stabbing it straight into Steven's back. He yelled again, and then he breathed, and his muscles relaxed. He was fine.

Sardonyx took out the syringe carefully. Amethyst pointed at the vial. "What is that stuff?"

"An antigen, I formulated it. The government makes some for me, it helps with corruption."

Pearl covered her mouth. "Oh, Steven." She turned to him, "When will it go away?"

Sardonyx shook his head, "There's only one way." He grabbed his gem, then a beast came climbing down from the statue, a lion. He grunted, as energy sparked from his hands, as he tried to heal him. He needed a nice thought, something nice. He thought of Steven, his happy demeanor, starry eyes, and optimism. He envied the innocence. The energy slowly seeped through, as the veins weaken, and Steven's skin grew pale.

Garnet tried to stop him, but he gestured her to wait, as the life seemed to drain from his eyes. Pearl wasn't so hesitant to stop. "Stop it, you're killing him!" She took out her spear, closing in on him.

Soren and Amethyst stepped in, but Pearl was hell bent. She jabbed at him. But something blocked it. A morning star mace about as long as her own weapon. Sardonyx let go of him. "So you attack now? I've been trying to help him."

"Pearl, you're overreacting." Garnet told her, but she ignored her, and Amethyst's attempts to stop her.

"You always wanted to do this. I'm just trying to help "

Pearl redirected her anguish, "You've helped enough!" She proceeded to cut at his face, leaving a gash across his face. It healed within seconds. "All you've done is blown up the temple, told Steven something you shouldn't have, and almost killed him."

"I don't think you know who you are dealing with."

"Let our blades do the talking." She smirked and proceeded to attack him. But he parried, Smacking her with the butt of his weapon. Pearl retaliated with a flurry of cuts and stabs. Sardonyx just blocked and slammed the massive spiked ball end into her head. She swooped down with the grace a dancer. "Your form is sloppy at best, faulty at worst."

Sardonyx spat back, "Are you fighting or dancing, decide. You have nor strength, and your techniques are impractical and idiotic." He ripped through her defensive dance in a single cleave, and swung again to end her. Only for her to cut him, he batters her, sending her flying into the bushes.

Pearl takes aim and starts firing energy bolts, Sardonyx dodges and deflects. "Your deflection is atrocious, who taught you how to fight."

"Same person who taught you, but I can see who actually payed attention." Sardonyx flicked his wrist, and the dark red weapon flashed in a black light. The staff section turned into a chain and ball flail. He spun the chain around, and it formed a shield around him. She renamed and they locked polearms. Sardonyx was far physically stronger and pushed her against the wall, aiming for a disarming blow. But she went for the same blow. "So predictable."

"Same to you."

They both lost their weapons. Sardonyx cracked his neck, "Let's settle this."

Pearl created multiple projections hitting him with each one. But he broke through each and grabbed the real Pearl, slamming her hard. She gave him a headache punch. Then drop kicked him. But he just backhanded her, sending her flying again to the other side of the gardens.

Garnet realized it was getting out of hand, she tried stopping them, Garnet punched them both, knocking them off to the sides. Pearl knew to stop when Garnet started fighting...

But Sardonyx didn't. His gem glowed, the violence fueling his ancient bloodlust, he craved the fight again. And flung himself at Pearl. Garnet punching him with a powerful right hook. Sardonyx was sent sliding to the edge if the pool. Garnet exclaimed, "Stop."

But the corruption in Sardonyx's veins coursed and his corruption grew faster. His muscles grew and he roared violently, and Pearl and Garnet fought him off. His power was too great, the Corruption only increasing his ferocity. He broke Garnet's visors.

Garnet dropped a good one two, and a massive combination and Sardonyx dropped, he reverted back to normal, as he stabbed himself with his own back. He ran into the pool, purging himself of the corruption, finally he was rid of its curse. He fell to the ground. Breathing heavily. "It's finally over."

Steven woke up, "Sheesh, what happened?"

Sardonyx and Pearl pointed at each other, both saying, "They did it!"

Steven just sighs. "Why did you guys fight?"

"This oaf doesn't know when to quit."

"This witch couldn't keep her hands off."

"You son of a-"

"Clod!"

"Dull Rock!"

"Grrr!"

"Rahh!"

They took out their polearms, ready to trade blows again.

Steven held his shield up. "Stop fighting, guys!"

They both sighed. "Fine."

Steven told them, "Now, shake hands, and tell them you're sorry."

They shook hands. Pearl didn't want to touch any part of him,but it was for Steven.

Sardonyx just had to weird things out by hugging Pearl.

Pearl cringed, but Steven came into the hug. "Group hugs guys!" They just sort of hugged Steven, but they still were mad at each other.


	17. Chapter 18

Steven felt terribly tired. He just tried stopping a fight, which he failed at doing. Pearl had just fought Sardonyx, and they both are at each other's necks. He wanted to help them in some way. The corruption had settled, and looked like it was forming. Before he could say anything, Garnet grabbed him and Amethyst, and they all ran through the gate. Soren walked this time, trying not to repeat the last incident with the facility.

Sardonyx took an alternative route, he took the temple's gate. It was a scene from his nightmares.

The ground beneath him was a scorching ash pile. Most of the top of the mountain had disappeared, the face of the statue gone. The temple was fairly intact, despite the thermonuclear detonation had wiped out most of the city. He walked across the rubble, followed the by the Crystal Gems. They took a moment to take it all in. The door to their rooms were still intact amazingly.

Sardonyx walked down from the beach, a soot black,the water still glowing from radiation left behind. The air was fiery hot. The sky darkened to a red that resembled his gem. He walked past the incinerated fence, flash melted in place. He stepped along the ashen gray streets, ash fell like snow, a gentle drizzle. A shadow was still on the ground. A person permanently burned into what was left of the pavement. The remains of what looked like a donut shop crumbling across the streets.

The forest had been flattened, only a few clumps of trees in some corners.

He slumped down, he looked up to the red sky, permanently burned the clouds. He was on his knees. "The hell have we done?"

Steven tried looking for his room, but it was probably incinerated, he stared where his old games were once cluttered on the floor. He sighed, he only found one, which he had already beaten. Well,at least his birthday was coming up. The corruption left his stomach sore,his gem still dark from the after effects of it. Sardonyx provided his treatment to him,told him to bring a few if it hurts too much to handle. He couldn't use his shield or any of his powers.

Pearl had taken her entire sword collection in her hands. Amethyst gathered a ridiculous amount of trash. "Amethyst, you don't need all of that."

Amethyst pestered her. "Yes I do."

Pearl rolls her eyes, "Because candy wrappers and cardboard boxes are 'so' important."

Amethyst scoffed, "I don't touch your stuff, you don't touch mine."

Pearl shuffled the swords in her arms. "Trust me, Amethyst, nobody wants to touch your stuff."

Amethyst proceeded to make faces at her behind her back, and shadow boxing her. Pearl just moved along. "Amethyst, you're still not smooth."

Garnet had organized all of the remaining gem fragments they had imprisoned over the years. Sardonyx had slipped in. "That's a lot of gems, see you've all been busy the last thousand years. Good to see I'm not the only one fighting the good fight."

Garnet didn't respond. Sardonyx knew he probably wasn't going to get a response. Until a voice rang out. It was her. "You're telling him, right?"

Sardonyx nodded, "He needs to know, soon."

Soren tried to help Amethyst, but she stopped him, gasping. "Dude, what are you doing?"

"Well," Soren scratched the back of his head, "I thought you may have needed help, so I..."

"I don't need help, I'm fine, just get out of my way."

Spessartine took her stuff, and lifted it all, "No, you need help."

Amethyst groaned, "I don't need any... Wait a second... What do you want from me?" She figured he was asking for some kind of favor.

"I... Oh... uhh... ehh. Heh." Spessartine blushed hard, his gem emanating a fiery aura. "Would you... Eh... G-go?"

Amethyst rolled her eyes, "Spit it out already."

Spessartine felt like a teapot, he was steaming from her eyes. "Would you, g-g-go, out..."

"Alright, let's go, this way, geez, are you always like this?'

Spessartine shook his head.

Amethyst practically dragged him to the gate, and they were teleported to Bay City.

Sardonyx felt in debt for letting his violent tendencies control him. He marched into Pearl's room. She waltzed with her blade, in a beautiful and graceful motion.

Pearl spotted him, and threw her dagger. "How long were you there?" She sounded nervous, as though he just saw something he wasn't suppose to.

Sardonyx shrugged, "Enough to see you can use a sword."

Pearl scolded him. "So now you congratulate me, state your business before I kick you out."

Sardonyx said with a thoughtful tone, "We're working as a team, I forgot that, I really lost it, that isn't who I am... Not anymore." He looked away, averting his eyes from her sight.

Pearl went straight up to him, flipping towards him. "Well, I accept your apology, but you still need to atone for it."

Sardonyx offered a solution. "I can spar with you, I need help, and I know you are a great teacher."

Pearl gave a strange smile when she heard teacher. "Well, I think I can help you, starting now." She drew her spear, and he took out his mace. They bashed shafts and sparred.

Steven heard grunts and groans from Pearl's room, followed by a chorus of moans, followed by a scream. Amethyst came back with Spessartine and her eyes widened, blushing heavily. Then Sardonyx got knock out of the doorway, as Pearl attacked him with two spears, he kicked her over his head, and they both laughed it off.

Garnet felt the need to add, "They've been at it for hours..."

Amethyst looked at Pearl. "What we're you guys doing in there." A purple blush burned on her face.

Pearl almost hurled from Amethyst's inappropriate innuendo from human culture. "Amethyst!" She punched her on the arm. "I was sparing, it was a very professional debt he paid for the fight he started at the fountain. Where has your corpulent behind been this entire time?"

Amethyst shrugged, Spessartine had given it away. "I sort of, uhh, heh."

Amethyst just said it plainly, "We went out to get fry bits."

Garnet tilted her glasses.

Steven look at everyone having fun, but he still missed Connie, it pricked at him like a thorn at his side.


	18. Chapter 19 Backyard Brawl

Sardonyx's reported through the new call cards he planted small radios into.

"Warning, orbitals detect activity in one of the kindergarten facilities, report immediately."

Sardonyx was the first to arrive, the other Crystal Gems followed. He was horrified,the blue light erupted in the sky, "I really was hoping I wasn't going to have to use this..." Sardonyx flung out his morningstar, and braced for the shockwave. It brushed past him, he walked carefully into the confines of the Kindergarten. Machines began wiring, injecting some type of material into the rock, and slowly drained the minerals. "We have a situation here."

A massive roar called behind him, and a large orange hand pounded the rock his head was once behind. He missed her by milliseconds.

"You again." Sardonyx's eyes glowed red, and ran into her. She spun into a ball, and they wrestled for footing. Pushing each other, but it was clear Jasper had the advantages of being the bigger gem.

Jasper activated her weapon,and rammed him into the wall of Kindergarten. The energy field around her only add Sardonyx stronger, he threw her into an injector, smashing it into pieces. "You can't stop what we've started."

"Try me,many gems said the same thing." Jasper head butted him,only for him to side step and hit her with his morning star. The gem brought her head around, sending a shock wave across the entire Kindergarten, as they traded blows. She kept missing. He kept hitting,but she wouldn't stop. She disarmed and tackled him with a meteor smash. He knew he only needed to stall her.

The gems arrived within minutes, "Deactivate the injectors, I'll handle this." Sardonyx backhanded the giant, and she picked him up and tried to break his back, then dropped him with a suplex. He kicked her with a knee to the face, shattering the visor on her weapon.

Jasper was still corrupt, and the serum only made her stronger. He brought the antigen with him, just in case. He injected her gem with it. "What did you do to me?!"

"Brought you down, made you a bit more manageable." Sardonyx began to say something.

 _Many gems, wish death upon me_  
 _Blood in my eye man and I can't see_  
 _I'm trying to be what I'm destined to be_  
 _And clods trying to take my life away_  
 _I put a hole in your gem for f*** with me_  
 _My back on the wall, now you gon' see_  
 _Better watch how you talk, when you talk about me_  
 _'Cause I'll come and cracks your gems today_

 _Many gem, many, many, many, many gem_  
 _Wish death 'upon me_  
 _Lord I don't cry no more_  
 _Don't look to the sky anymore_  
 _Have mercy on me_

Jasper and Sardonyx dashed into each other again,and another set of blows,

 _Sunny days wouldn't be special, if it wasn't for rain_  
 _Joy wouldn't feel so good, if it wasn't for pain_  
 _Death is so easy, 'cause life is hard_

 _It'll leave you physically and mentally scarred_

 _This is for my men on the rocks_

 _Selling their souls to get dropped_

 _No,I ain't gonna stop_

 _Until I hear the gems crack, fizzle, or pop._

 _Many gems, many, many, many gems, wish cracks on me._

 _This time you can't see_

 _You'll now in the end it was me._

 _Every night I talk to god, but he don't say nothing back_  
 _I know he protecting me, but I still stay in a trap_  
 _In my nightmares, clods keep pulling techs on me_

 _Many gems, many, many, many, many gems_  
 _Wish cracks 'pon me_  
 _Lord I don't cry no more_  
 _Don't look to the sky no more_  
 _Have mercy on me_  
 _Have mercy on my soul_  
 _Somewhere my heart turned cold_  
 _Have mercy on many gems_  
 _Many, many, many, many gems_  
 _Wish death upon me_

 _But I am the death_

 _Step to me you'll be set_

 _Put you in a shallow grave_

 _No chance to save_

 _Bow down, clod the one on your shoulder_

 _Get over here pebble, this beef ain't over_

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl ripped through the injectors, and stopping gems from growing. A few grew out of the holes. Many had extra arms and hands. Garnet dealt with them, crushing the first easily, but she froze. Two gems fell, and she realized what they were. They were gems being re injected, most of them, old friends. She shuddered, and Steven watched as Garnet, began to cry, sob like he'd never seen her. Pearl stabbed a few and ran over to Garnet. "Garnet, what's wrong?"

Garnet snorted, and took out her gauntlets, "Nothing, keep going." They continued to destroy injectors, and fight off the experiments.

Jasper threw Sardonyx, but he took her by the helmet and dropped her to the floor. He began to bash her with his mace, only for her to grab him and throw him aside. "Where's Rose, I want the fight I deserve, not trash like you and that fusion."

He began hitting her even harder, and knew it could only end one way. He strangled her, and drained. Her form flickered and in a poof, she was just a gem. He threw the gem on the ground, and was ready to crush it under his boot.

But a pink bubble formed around the gem, Steven had saved Jasper. Sardonyx looked at him in disbelief. "Why? She's killed countless innocents."

Steven looked at him straight in the eyes. "You aren't any different, people can change. You changed.'

Sardonyx shook his head. "You don't understand; home worlders never change, all they do is kill, that's all they now. Now, lower the shield."

Steven shook his head. "Even Home worlders, just give them a second chance."

Sardonyx glared at him, wide eyed. "She's a monster, Steven, you saw that city; your city, she did that."

Steven turned frighteningly stoic. "All I see is a gem about to break another because he's mad at it."

Sardonyx stepped down, after all, Steven was the leader, and he couldn't change that. Steven locked her in a bubble. "You know that won't hold her."

Steven said, "We take her to the facility."

Sardonyx thought he was in some sick nightmare, how could he let someone like that keep living, she of all things didn't deserve life. Last time he took her there she blew the hell out of it. He knew it was because of that nit wit General, but still..."

Peridot narrowly escaped, shocking Amethyst's whip,and dodged Pearl's spear and Spessartine's sword. "See you later,clods." She cackled as her ship flew over the clouds. Sardonyx threw an injector at the ship, and it knocked the ship's index finger off. It still flew off into the distance.

"We need to secure the other Kindergarten locations." He took the gate with Jasper's gem in his hands.


	19. Chapter 20 Ghosts

"Kindergarten is secure." Sardonyx reassured the rest of the Crystal Gems. "Return to headquarters."

Garnet refused to talk, Steven tried to talk to her. "Garnet? You okay. The fusions-"

"Those aren't fusions!" The sudden aggression from Garnet alarmed everyone.

"Is this some sick joke from Home world?"

"This is what they think of fusions."

"Ruby..."

"Don't 'Ruby' me, this, this is unforgivable. Look at it." Garnet held an experimented gem.

"No, please I don't want to." Garnet began to glow, her body began to tear in half, Ruby and Sapphire unfused.

"Ruby, what's gotten into you?" Sapphire looked with concern at Ruby, who had just about lost it.

"Those are Crystal Gems, I just, can't even think... Rrr." Ruby punched the ground.

Tears began to well up in Ruby's face,and Sapphire hugged Ruby. "It's over, Ruby, they aren't doing it anymore. The gems fused again. Garnet stood, curled up, then she stood up.

Steven looked up at Garnet. "Garnet, are you-"

Garnet turned over to Steven, "I'm fine Steven, just a rough patch.

...

"Focus Steven." Pearl oversaw Steven as he tried to dance with Amethyst.

Amethyst stopped midway, tripping Steven. "I think he needs a demonstration, honestly, I don't think he can fuse with us."

Pearl shook her head, "Nonsense. He can fuse with humans,he should be able to fuse with us. Come on, just try again."

Sardonyx stepped in, and watched him dance, but it wasn't natural, "It isn't about technique," he butted in, "It's about the connection between the two. It isn't the same. They aren't at the same."

Pearl crossed her arms. "Well, if you think you know how, go on ahead, we've done everything."

Sardonyx looked at Steven,and just said one thing. "Think of the good times." He could feel his anguish, his sense of worth misplaced and cast aside.

The dance went on, and it was working. "It's working!" Amethyst and Steven fell into a flash of light. The fusion process had begun, but then they separated as soon as it began.

Pearl had that same smug look on her face. "Does she make that face when she's right?" Sardonyx whispered to Amethyst.

"Yep, pretty much. I hate it when she gets everything right." Amethyst looked like she just sustained a headache punch from a heavyweight, she held her head from the attempt.

Steven sighed, "Guess I can't..."

Pearl intervened. "No Steven, you can, you were doing it, it's just... Something happened in between. Honest mistake. Alright Amethyst, let's go."

Amethyst rolled her eyes, "I'm not doing that ridiculous dance, okay? Can't we just call it a day?"

Pearl scolded her, "Steven needs to know how to fuse with any of us in the case of an emergency."

Amethyst just left, "Count me out of that, I'm out."

Pearl blocked the doorway, she said through her teeth, "Amethyst, just do it, for Steven."

Amethyst shoved her out of the way, "Just fuse with Sardonyx."

"Don't drag me into this." Sardonyx really didn't want to fuse, he knew he couldn't, at least, not since...

Pearl leaned over to Amethyst, "No, that would be weird, I don't even know him. It might not work."

Amethyst moved through the gate, "Not my problem."

Pearl asked, "Where are you even going?"

Sardonyx looked at Steven. "They have some issues don't they?"

Steven summed it up simply. "Apples and oranges, I guess."

Pearl gulped, she didn't really want to be too close to Sardonyx, considering he might go nuts and murder someone again. But she had to do it for Rose, and Steven. With a sigh, she reached out with her hand. "Alright, pay attention, Steven."

Sardonyx took her hand, and they both danced fairly easily. Each knew what to do,but Pearl had some panic,and he could sense it. "Just relax, Pearl, almost there."

Pearl's thoughts were racing, she didn't want to even go near him and now she was forced into fusing with him. They made it to the dip, and the dance was complete, but the fusion broke off. "Oops, looks like it didn't work, I think we've covered enough."

Sardonyx crossed his arms. "Steven will learn, in time." Sardonyx took a sigh of relief, he didn't have to get dragged into this. Amethyst was going to owe him a lot of that 'allowance' she 'borrowed' from a few people.

Steven argued, "But."

Sardonyx clenched his teeth, "This is really weird, Steven. Pearl and me are different, in quite a few ways."

Steven talked uncomfortably loud. "Really? You guys seen to have a lot in common. You both like swords, both of you can dance, and both of you are good at teaching."

Pearl tried to step out, but Sardonyx stopped her, "Steven hasn't learned yet, we need to try again."

With a sigh, they danced again. Sardonyx closed his eyes, Pearl looked at him odd. Sardonyx saw Aquamarine, still on the shore, as they danced under the stars. Maybe if he just pretended she was her. But then, the images flashed again. The gen shattering, the fire, the silhouette. "No!"

He let her go and Pearl dropped to the floor.

Sardonyx couldn't look at her, "I can't fuse, not anymore." Her dance still flashed in his head. He ran back into his office.

Pearl looked confused, she didn't want to get in his business, but Steven's training was on the line. She boldly stepped into his office. He was knee deep in an old,withered book. Pearl really didn't know what she was doing, but she needed to reach out to him. "Are you, alright?"

He looked up from his book, his red eyes glassy in appearance. She could see the pain in his eyes, a look of loss. She knew that look better than anyone else. "Who was she?"

Sardonyx wasn't used to people being able to know what he was thinking. "You don't need to know, it doesn't concern you."

Pearl knew that he needed time to heal, but Steven was waiting outside.

Before she could say anything,Sardonyx finally broke the silence. "You wouldn't understand."

Pearl looked at him. "I might."

Sardonyx looked up, back at her. "You can still remember her though. You can still hear her voice. You can still feel her embrace. You can still smell her, even remember what she used to say. I can't, I'm stuck. She didn't leave me."

Pearl flinched from his response, she could almost feel the anguish, just through his voice.

"She was taken from me. I still only see flashes. It happened too fast, a shadow. Her gem, falling-" he found it harder to go on. "All I have left of her, is one memory. The day we."

"Fused." Pearl felt her eyes sting. Sardonyx shed silent tears; the big, scary, mean, sociopath had a soul, buried under a millennia of punishment and hunting.

"She made you feel like everything." Sardonyx closed the book. "I can't do it again, not after all of that, she's the only good thing in all my chaos and death. In all my rage, she was my tether. I look at all the gems I've shattered, and I see her, her gem, breaking. It's how I live now. All I do is destroy, kill, or capture. Rinse and repeat. I saw you, your memories of her. I just couldn't. I didn't know her, only what she did." Sardonyx paused, it was over, he took a moment and rose to his feet.

Pearl stopped him. "You don't have to do this."

Sardonyx smiled, a smile bitter sweet. The same smile Pearl wore when she first saw Steven. "It's time I stop looking at ghosts. Besides, Steven's still waiting for us.


	20. Chapter 21 Healing

Sardonyx sat in his office. He had been elected to the head of Gem Warfare Affairs. He wrote in his book.

A master swordswoman, a warrior of high caliber. Strong, in the real way.

Sardonyx stopped. He felt a sinking feeling in his gut, like he just ate gas station sushi.

"Well, I see you've been busy." A voice called from the dark.

"Why can't you die like the rest of us?" Sardonyx stared into the darkness.

The figure stepped out. His skin was a pale blue. A beard with dark spines leading to the remaining half of his face. A good chunk exposed his right jaw and skull. His eyes still glowed in the dark, a primal instinct flashed in them. The azure visage made the rest of the room feel colder. It was Turquoise.

"Miss me, old man?" He gave a twisted grin.

"Get out of my head." Sardonyx stood up holding his left hand to his gem, ready to swing at him.

Turquoise shook his head. "I see you've made some friends. A lady friend, maybe. You always had a fetish for tall girls."

Sardonyx slammed his mace through Turquoise, shattering the glass wall, he screamed.

Turquoise smirked, "No one wants you here. I can feel their fear, they don't want you." His voice echoed louder. "She, doesn't want you." He pointed over to the gate. 'He, doesn't want you."

"You're wrong." Sardonyx held his head to his temples.

Turquoise faded away as Pearl and the rest of the Crystal Gems barged in. "What's going on in here?" She had a look of great concern, and fear oozed from her shaky voice.

Sardonyx sighed, "Nothing, just... Nothing." He got up and walked over to the gate. He needed some alone time, away from everyone else.

"You sure, I mean, people don't smash just through walls when nothing happens." Amethyst wanted to make sure they weren't about to get shattered.

Garnet didn't need to say anything, she moved from the doorway, allowing him to walk to the gate, disappearing.

"Geez, what's his problem?" Amethyst asked, looking at Pearl.

Pearl didn't know what to say, he seemed to be over the whole fusion thing, but this was something different. "I don't know, but it's something very serious if he reacted in such a way."

Garnet tipped her glasses, "I think you should just leave him be, we don't want to repeat the last 'incident.'"

"He's been alone for a very long time, he needs help." Pearl felt somewhat responsible, maybe she unleashed some terrible vision from his past. She ran into the gate with him.

Garnet shook her head, "This isn't going to end well."

Spessartine peered out, "So, no missions today?"

Amethyst shrugged, "Guess not."

Steven sighed and just walked to what was left of his room. His birthday was coming in a few weeks. Last time he celebrated it, he almost died. To say the least, he wasn't very excited. It didn't help it was also the day his mother have up her physical form to make him. It just really brought bad memories.

Sardonyx sat at the dismal bar, he had just finished his tenth glass. Turquoise still talked, but now it was really just a whisper. "Oh please, Sardines, you can't expect me to go away after a long day out. I'm permanent, you can forget Andesite, hell, you can even forget Aquamarine."

"No, I can't forget her." Sardonyx slurred, and asked the waiter for another.

"Dude," the bartender stopped him. "I think that's enough."

Sardonyx still dizzy. "These mortal potions do such harm to thy conscience. Thou hath shame in thee. Give me thy sweet nectar, and I shalt weep a river, and embrace Death's stupor."

"Go home, man, you're drunk." The bartender looked concern.

"Another, ho." Sardonyx glanced over at Turquoise, blurry, but still running his mouth.

"Stop it, Sardines, I won't go away."

Sardonyx snarled, "Just get out of my head, okay. Just die like the rest of them."

Turquoise looked at him. "Look at me, you bastard, you killed me, for what, even. Because you were jealous of my power, and I'm still here. I'm going to make you as miserable as you made me, you miserable leach." He pointed to the hole in his chest, "You did this!"

"I won't lie." He stared out at the wraith. "It was me. I killed you. You lost yourself in the power. You needed to be stopped."

The Phantom roared back at him. "I remember when you called me brother. I know you still remember."

Sardonyx remembered the day he sat down and laughed over the fire. "You don't think I ever cried for you? I spent centuries thinking about what I did. You haunt me. I can't sleep because of you. I can't live because of you!"

Everyone at the bar stared at him, as the crazy red guy that screamed at the empty chair next to him. Pearl walked through, and saw him. He had tears welling up, he buried his head into the wooden table. She sat in the chair, and Turquoise faded away. "It's okay, they're gone."

He looked up, "No, I remember him, I can't stop thinking about it. He was just like me. He knew me, if only I knew how far he'd fall, maybe I could've." He paused. "Saved him."

Pearl put her hand on his shoulder. "We can't save everyone. Come on, we need you there, Steven still needs you."

Pearl guided him back to the gate and they returned to the headquarters. "Now, is there any missions."

Sardonyx took out his left hand, Pearl knew what he meant by that.

Pearl looked at him, he begged with probably the most unconvincing puppy eyes ever, but she knew he'd suffered another flash of the past.

"I can't stand that place. There isn't enough light." Sardonyx got to the point. "Could you, dance with me?"

Pearl remembered the last dance, Turquoise still watching from the shadows of Sardonyx's sight. He was afraid of the dark.

She took his hand, and he stepped one way. She stepped with him. They both slowly danced in unison, he looked out to see Turquoise, frowning. "She can't have you. You're not her's." He jumped from the shadows, closer. "You're mine." He looked directly at Pearl, trying to ignore Turquoise, for one last time. He didn't take it well. "Stop. Stop it! Don't look at her, she-" Turquoise's voice slowly faded as he danced, he wasn't fusing, he just needed a few more minutes. "Damn it Sardonyx! Stop dancing! Get off of that bitch!" He kicked him, but it was no use. His hands turned translucent. "No! You can't do this! You owe me!" Turquoise had a desperate plea in his eyes, but Sardonyx just needed to forget him, just for a little while.

Pearl danced, but the dance was... familiar. His eyes peered into her, but it wasn't anger, or grief. She thought about Rose, how she would dance. And here she was, dancing almost the exact same way. Sardonyx glanced over at something, then peered into her even deeper. "Who were you yelling at?"

Sardonyx just swayed softer. "A ghost."

He may have reek of all the alcohol he gorged on, she still saw his constant look of pain fall away. His stomps turned into smooth steps. His scarlet eyes had a look of peace. His once glossy eyes had a fire in them. It wasn't hate though. It was, something else. "Thank you." He hugged her.

Her eyes widened. She wouldn't have thought he could hug like this. She thought of how he drained the life out of others with his hands. But he was, healing. She felt the crack on her gem slowly seep away. A single tear rolled through it. She hugged him back, and she remembered how Rose would heal with her tears and a hug. It was just like that. He stood there, hugging, them finally, he let go, and retreated back into the dark.


	21. Chapter 22 Always Find a Way

Sardonyx filed more papers, they'd almost had all the escapees detained. Only 50 left in the world. He sighed. His mind wandered back to the first thing they told him when becoming part of the rebellion: defender of Earth, warrior of both highest, and lowest caliber. Strong, but blessing to the meek. The haunting words clouded his mind. He finally might just complete his mission, and finally undo the wrong he had done to the Earth and its people. "We did it, Aquamarine, it's almost over. The nightmare is almost over."

He looked up to Steven trying to fuse again, finally working. "Guys, it worked! I did it."

Amethyst quickly unfused and gave a sigh of relief, "Finally!"

Pearl clapped him on, "That's good.' But her mind went somewhere else. Her smile faded as she remembered why he needed to learn to fuse. "Well now, we can start training soon, I'll ready the temple."

Sardonyx smiled from his office, but he knew they were coming. The two gems that caused all of this were going to report to the Diamond Authority, and war would come. A war of which the planet has never seen. A war that could kill them all.

...

"Your Majesty." A trembling Peridot said in a shaky voice.

"I believe you found the remainder of that traitor's army. Am I correct?" The massive Yellow gem looked down on her with seething rage.

"Y-yes your Grace. There are only five or six."

The Yellow gem got off her throne, and Peridot closed her eyes and wished for a quick death. "Tell me, young one," the Yellow gem raised her chin, and she looked in her eyes, glowing orbs of inferno filled Peridot with fear. "Was Rose Quartz amongst the survivors?"

Peridot nodded. "Yes, but-"

"But what? What could be so important, that a miserable rock like you could tell me?" The Yellow Diamond was ready to crush the little triangle into a thousand pieces.

"It's a Steven." Peridot looked up at her with tears in her eyes.

"A... Steven?" Another called through, more blue in appearance. "There is yet to be a life form with such a name. My future sight doesn't betray me. It's a human of some kind."

Peridot bumped in, "It used the mark of her Rebellion... It had the shield."

The Yellow Diamond's rage turned into fear. "A... Human, with the power of a gem." She turned to the Blue Diamond, they didn't anticipate that the traitor could even consider such a thing. Was she really so desperate?

Peridot kept going. 'I tried recreating the experiments, but it was... unsuccessful."

"The key of gem immortality rests with those experiments. Those beings are beyond our control. They are powerful beyond measure. If even a single one survives..." The Blue Diamond gave a cautious stare at the Yellow Diamond. "It could bring forth our destruction. A being both gem and of flesh shall destroy us, you know the legend. Send the entire fleet. Destroy them... All of them."

Yellow Diamond looked to Peridot, then to a door. With a hand on her head, she called a guard over. "That guard is you, Peridot." She narrowed her eyes, and the guard began to scream, wailing in pain as its gem shattered. She didn't even have to touch it. "That's what will happen if you don't get down there and fix this mess you and your 'scientists' have conjured."

Peridot was completely shaken, she was petrified, "Y-yes, Your Grace."

"Oh rocks, I wish we still kept White Diamond around, we could've sent her and been done with all this nonsense."

Blue Diamond shook her head from her statement. "Traitor once, a traitor will betray again."

...

Steven felt sore from the wound left behind from Purple Agate. Thorns slowly grew from his gem. He needed to tell the others. "Uh, guys."

Pearl looked at it. "Oh dear, that's not normal."

Amethyst stared at it. "It looks like you hugged a cactus."

Garnet readjusted her glasses. "Yikes."

Amethyst had an idea. "Why don't we just spray weed killer on it?"

"Amethyst, you can't just spray people, he's human." Pearl yelled at her.

Amethyst reacted with her own yell. "Hey, it was a joke!"

Just like that, they erupted into an argument. "Guys, don't fight." Steven weakly squeaked, as the pain from the thorns began to make it hard to breathe.

Garnet caught him in her arms. "He needs help."

A pink vine whipped out of his back and smacked them out of the way. "Guys, I can't... control."

Amethyst ran through the portal.

Pearl turned over, "Amethyst!" She stabbed one of the vines, sending a weak groan from Steven.

Spessartine chopped down a few, but ten replaced it them and he was quickly overwhelmed.

Garnet didn't want to hurt Steven, she tried to restrain the vines, but there were hundreds of them.

Sardonyx jumped from his office, he knew it had to be done. He jumped Steven, stabbing him just above his gem. And with a poof he disappeared. A dark pink gem was left behind.

Everyone looked at Sardonyx, "What?" He said with a saterical feel. "I didn't kill him. Besides, I know someone who can fix this, and I'd rather not restrain his weeds."

Pearl raced and sheltered the gem with her body. She didn't know what was going on, and Steven just vanished. She needed to protect him. No, protect her. She was confused, she hated being wrong, but she was terrified of not knowing.

Garnet and Sardonyx helped her up. "We can still fix this, Pearl." Sardonyx guided them to the gate. He closed his eyes, tracking the gem's signature. She was still there.

With a breath, they arrived at a tropical island, untouched by all of civilization. He felt for her energy signature, it was faint, but still there. "Citrine?" He called out.


	22. Chapter 23 Necromancy

Pearl looked around at the primordial forest. 'What is this place?"

Sardonyx cut through a few branches. "A home of an old friend of mine. I know she can help him."

Garnet turned her head side to side, "How do you know?"

Sardonyx glanced at her. "Let's just say that she knows half gems like Steven." He found the offering table. He dropped what looked like ashes into the plate.

A mist loomed down, and Citrine's shade appeared. "Sardonyx! You're still alive? And you have some new friends? What brings you all here." She snorted some of the ashes, and sighed, "Ah, no that's the good stuff."

Pearl showed the Phantom Steven's gem. A dark energy began to pulsate from it. She found the image of the gem I'm front of her, "Is she... Dead?

Citrine looked down at the gem. "As dead as grass from weeds. That is quite the gem. Pentagonal facet, Rose Quartz. But not quite, a Steven." She looked up. "Well, the good news is that he isn't corrupted."

Pearl's eyes widened, "Then what's wrong with him?"

Citrine looked into the stone. "A Hex has been placed on his body, an ancient gem rune of possession."

Pearl only grew more confused, "A rune? What are you talking about?"

Citrine smiled at Pearl. "Well, my dear, that means a powerful user a gem magic has cursed this fellow. He was quite accurate, the rune is very well drawn..." The old phantom idled.

Pearl demanded an answer. "I've never heard of anything like that. You must be mistaken."

Citrine turned to her. "Or maybe you aren't so smart. I swear, nobody made a single pearl without giving them a superiority complex!"

"Citrine." Sardonyx talked before Pearl could get cursed herself. "How do we lift the Hex?"

Citrine pondered. "This isn't something you remove. This is a possession rune. You have to exercise it." She scratched her head. "Follow my instructions: you'll need salt, blood, and protection runes. All of which are on this alter."

Sardonyx picked up the runes, until Citrine stopped him.

"Be careful! Those runes are at least 6000 years old! You don't want to activate them prematurely." Citrine waved her hands, frantically.

Citrine walked them through the ritual. The salt was a ranged in a pentagon formation, surrounded by a circle. It was a sketch of Steven's gem. "Be very, very careful."

Sardonyx slowly placed the runes near the points on the pentagon.

Citrine ordered them back. "Brace yourselves, this is going to go boom."

A massive purple cloud erupted from the gem, as it took the form of Purple Agate. Them it reformed into a massive Arthropod.

Sardonyx swung at it, only for his mace to pass through it.

Citrine began to chant in some unknown language, and began to make signs in the air. The purple cloud began to attack the gems, only to be stopped by the runes. Citrine took out a mirror and the cloud descended into it, growling as it clawed for the gem.

Sardonyx brushed off dust from his shoulders. "That's not something you see everyday."

The pink gem in the center of the room began to form into Steven, "What happened? What did I miss? Why is everyone in a circle." He pointed at Citrine. "Is that a ghost?"

Pearl ran into the circle and hugged Steven tight, followed by Garnet.

Steven looked at them funny. "Wow. Miss me much?"

Sardonyx shook his head, "What, was that?"

Citrine looked down, and suddenly turned serious. "That was a gem phantom. But I think you already have seen one, haven't you? I sensed him following you."

Sardonyx looked behind his left shoulder, Turquoise's twisted body still stood behind him. "How do I get rid of him?"

Citrine looked at the others. "They are the only way to defeat him. He's not like the others. He's a wraith. He will destroy you if you let him.

Turquoise frowned directly at them, but it was obvious who he was staring at.

Steven held his stomach. "I'm hungry, where's Amethyst?"

Pearl instantly got mad, "Amethyst!"

...

Amethyst had dashed around Bay City, they had a donut shop and even had fry bits. In a flash, she quickly stormed the restaurants, Spessartine quickly following. "You still got that money you scammed off of Steven?"

Amethyst gawked. "I didn't scam, I borrowed."

Spessartine gave a heat wave off of himself. "And I'm a Diamond Overlord."

Amethyst came to the counter, and two familiar faces, Sadie and Lars.

Lars talked in the least convincing happy voice either of the gems had ever heard. 'Welcome to the Big Donut the Second, how may I help you?" He instantly recognized Amethyst. "Wait a second, you're one of the Crystal Gems."

"Yep." Amethyst wolfed down the donut Sadie gave to her.

Sadie and Lars both asked, "How's Steven?"

Amethyst waved them off, "Oh, he's fine."

"AMETHYST!" Pearl called out from the entrance of the shop.

Amethyst groaned. "Here comes the party pooper." She turned and acted happy to see her, "Hey, how's it going?"

Pearl stood over her with a fiery vengeance. "Why didn't you watch Steven while we were away?!"

"I was, but I Was going to get the weed killer. See." She passed Pearl massive can of chemicals.

"Amethyst! This isn't funny! Steven almost turned into a giant plant!" Pearl crossed her arms and leaned uncomfortably close to her face.

Garnet crossed her arms, "That was really uncalled for."

Amethyst used her fall guy. "It was Spessartine's idea!"

"No it wasn't!" Spessartine tried to defend his honesty.

Amethyst elbowed him and whispered, "Yes, it was."

Sardonyx broke it up, "It doesn't matter. What matters is that everyone is safe, at least, for now."

Amethyst squinted at him, 'What do you mean, 'for now?'"

"I think you already know." Sardonyx hinted.

Steven yelled over them. "Guys! There's a chopper over our heads!"

A large new helicopter and an army of interviewers ran down to the donut shop.

Steven smiled and said what he needed to as fast as possible. "Longstory b-bye, enjoy the costumers."

They all dashed to the gate as the reporters crowded the streets, everyone ran to the gate, "I'll hold them off." Sardonyx suddenly changed into a suit and tie, fashionably maroon. And began answering questions.

Shocking turn of events have unveiled, the supposed villains are in fact our heroes.

...

Sardonyx left his office and went down the elevator. He typed in a code and it went down for what seemed like miles. And there, in a reinforced containment field, the orange gem warrior stood, curling into a ball in a vain attempt to break through the top. "There's approximately 12,000 pounds of concrete, steel, and pressurized water. You're not getting out of here."

Jasper growled, "Screw all of you, when I get out of here, you're next."

Sardonyx gave small laugh, "And watch me kick your ass twice."

"I came here for a fight, it is debt. She... Promised."

Sardonyx turned away, "You do know she's not here anymore."

Jasper grew enraged, "Don't lie to me, clod. That human bore her gem. She took that form. But why?"

Sardonyx shook his head. "You will never understand why she did it, you'll never truly understand what it means. You've done a crime against humanity, and you're going to rot down here. Enjoy your stay." He left up the elevator, leaving the gem in total darkness.


	23. Chapter 24 Blackout

"Oh man, why does all the cool stuff happen when I'm not around?" Amethyst made a face of disappointment as she sighed in boredom.

Pearl gave her a look of judgement. "Well maybe if you'd just stayed around, you could have seen it. But no, you just HAD to go out with... Sorry, what's your name again?" She looked at Spessartine. Before he could say anything, Pearl reentered the argument, "Doesn't matter, the thing that matters is that you did something wrong. Garnet, what's the punishment."

"100 years without wrestling."

Amethyst gasped, "How could you?"

"Alright then, 1000 years without eating." Garnet upped the ante.

Amethyst just looked down, and started counting with her fingers. "Okay," she came to a conclusion, "1000 years without eating." She sighed and sat for a while. "This is going to suck."

Spessartine tried to help, "Well, they didn't say anything about drinks."

Amethyst's eyes flickered open as she thought of a novel idea to cheat around the rules. "Come with me."

Pearl pointed at her while looking at Garnet, "Well, we can't just keep her locked in, do you even know how much chaos that could cause." Pearl's typical look of superiority fell away. Lost but won.

Amethyst fired up a blender and went on to put a hamburger into it. Her eyes narrowed into a scolding look. "Pearl thinks she's so smart doesn't she? Well I can be just as much a genius as she thinks she can." She fired up the blender and a molten mess of hamburger 'juice' plopped out. She took a sip. "Ah, that's the spot."

Steven had his phone out, trying to see if he could get reception in the underground facility. Of course, there wasn't any.

Sardonyx came up to him and asked him, "You're not taking pictures of this place, right?"

Steven replied with a smile. "Oh no, Mr... Um..." He tried to think of a good name.

"Just call me Sardonyx." He took out a bulky phone with a satellite attached at the top. "Use this."

"Wow, this thing must be, like a bazillion years old, thanks Sard."

Sardonyx sighed, "my name is..." He thought about it. The name seemed pretty good, he never thought it would sound so good to have his named shortened by just a few letters. He still felt the 'Onyx' needed to be represented. Sard-O, no. That would be stupid... S.O. No, that didn't work either. Sardonyx just seemed to be the best; official yet not too long, but long enough.

"Hey, who are you calling?" Sardonyx gave a look of skepticism.

"Oh, my friend, Connie." Steven looked down to the strange device, pushing buttons to make it work.

Sardonyx realized who she was. The moment he said her name, a blast of neurotransmitters fired off, she definitely meant something to him. He sighed. "Be careful, Steven, the road is dark ahead, keep your friends close."

...

Spessartine was left to twiddle his fingers as Amethyst went off into the facility from the cafeteria lounge. He sighed. It had been at least ten years away from home. Even though he hated the place, it felt good to at least say he has a home. Now, he's not so sure. "A - Amethyst?" He called out.

Amethyst gave a yell from across the hallway, "Yeah."

Spessartine peered over, "I'd like to tell you something."

"Like what?" Amethyst slowly came closer to the door, but only by a yard or so.

"It's a little private, though." He averted his eyes slightly.

"A secret?"Amethyst rubbed her hands together.

"Yeah, something like that." Spessartine became less and less audible, almost to the point Amethyst had to be right next to him to just barely hear what he was saying. "Well, I haven't been honest with you guys. The real reason that I went 'off world.'"

Amethyst tilted her head, 'Didn't you say something about not digging them or something?" She suddenly shape shifted into a microphone, "Dude, I can't hear you, speak louder."

"I went off world because... I might've... I kind of... Killed someone." Spessartine gave a look of anticipation, he was preparing for a freak out.

Amethyst began to laugh hysterically. "Ha, that's a good one, Spess. What else, are you also the reason why they sent that gem from home world?" Sarcasm and hamburger juice reeked in her voice.

Spessartine began to feel dishonored. "I happen to have murdered someone, who may or may not be in some way related to the gem-"

Suddenly, the lights turned off. All sound and light ceased, and all there was in the darkness was Spessartine, who had fire coming out of his head.

A loud shriek flooded the corridors and the lights flickered on.

"What was that?" Spessartine began to shake.

Amethyst began to get excited. "We're in a horror movie!"

"Amethyst, is that you?" Pearl's voice rang out. "Have you seen Steven anywhere?" She and Garnet came into the light of Spessartine's hair.

Garnet looked around. "Something's blocking my future vision." She tried taking her glasses off, showing all three of her eyes.

Spessartine stepped back. "You're a fusion?!"

He said fusion the same way Jasper had said it back on the ship. "You're 'fused' again?"

Garnet's face turned into a frown. "Is that a problem?"

"No no, it's just... I've never seen a fusion alive before." Spessartine stepped back even farther, a spark of fear in his eyes.

Pearl and Garnet exchanged looks of confusion. Pearl finally spoke up. "You mean, there aren't any fusions in home world."

Spessartine averted his eyes. "I've heard the stories of them. Four armed fighters that tore entire armies apart. The stories talked about them; monsters that tore cities apart and were the size of skyscrapers."

Garnet covered her mouth, as if she was about to throw up. It suddenly turned into rage and whispered to herself, "I told you, Sapphire, they hate us."

Steven looked around for anyone, then he found Sardonyx in the corner, covering his head. "Sard, are you okay?"

Sardonyx grunted. "Yeah, I'm fine. We need to find the others. And activate the generators. Within an hour these lights will go out."

"Good, you brought me what I needed.' Turquoise's visage flickered and grabbed Steven.

"Turquoise!" Sardonyx ran to catch up with him. But a massive gem fragment blocked the way. He hammered it, trying to pry his way through, only to watch Steven disappear in the darkness.


	24. Chapter 25 What You Are In The Dark

Sardonyx gave out a concussion wave, shattering the beast. He pitched into his emergency radio. "Please, please tell me the containment fields are intact."

The head scientist had a quivering breath. "Yes. Well, almost. We lost Sector 10."

"Maximum Security!" Sardonyx turned off the radio and sensed for the energy frequencies. There were so many fragments here... Turquoise chose the perfect timing. "I swear, every time I try to lock these things up, they always break out."

Sardonyx proceeded carefully walk, the most dangerous specimens were loose, and the others aren't ready.

...

Garnet tried to look for Steven. "I can't see him."

Pearl began to panic. "What. What do you mean you can't see him?"

"I can't see anything with it. Something is out there. Something dangerous."

A tremor overtook the facility, the corridors shook violently.

Spessartine stopped dead in his tracks. "Guys, what is that?" He pointed into the dark.

Amethyst's eyes widened. "Spessartine, watch it!"

A hiss erupted from it as Spessartine was pulled into the darkness, screaming like murder.

Garnet ran into what was dragging him, punching it square in its jaws.

The creature's eyes glowed like a dog's, as it trapped her in a sticky substance. She struggled as it inched closer, toying with its prey.

Pearl stepped out and stabbed it in one of its eyes.

Stunned, the monster seemed to dash away on several legs.

Spessartine lost all sense. "What on home- Earth is that?"

"A big, nasty gem fragment. Pray we never see it again." Garnet lurched free.

Pearl looked at the ground, stopping Spessartine from falling into the massive crater.

'What could 'a made that?" Amethyst looked down, using Spessartine's hair, she threw a lock down into the pit. It fell for what seemed forever.

Garnet took a deep breath. "Jasper."

...

Sardonyx looked up from Jasper's containment cell. The water leaked, losing all pressurized strength. The only light was a small lock of hair, probably that home world gem. The hole she made was incredible, spanning for miles, almost hitting the surface. He needed to find Turquoise, he was somewhere up there. Hiss sense may as well be useless; there could be about a hundred gems. He looked for the scientists trapped here. The remains were littered near the holding cells. The glass and fields flickered with small electric shocks. He needed to find Garnet. She would know how to find him.

Garnet made a plan. "We all split up, and look for him."

Amethyst gave her two cents on it. "Nooope. I've seen enough horror movies to know how this goes. We shouldn't be too far away from each other. We don't know what's out there."

Pearl looked in disbelief. "She's, right. We can't just run around, there could be thousands of gems."

"Steven was with Sardonyx, he should know." Spessartine tried to help.

"You left him alone, with him?" Amethyst whispered, though it was hardly one.

Pearl turned to Amethyst, "He's not bad... I mean, he isn't too untrustworthy." She gave a small blush.

Garnet shook her head. "Steven... Where would I go... Everyone! I know where he is!"

Everyone jumped at her sudden burst of sound. "Where?" Pearl began to grow increasingly more frantic as the minutes ticked by.

Garnet Put Her Shades back on. "In the most dangerous place, he's a magnet for it. Just follow the path down." She jumped down into the massive hole.

Spessartine gulped, "I better get some of that green paper you get, Amethyst."

Pearl looked at her. "Where did you get all that money?"

"I have a job." Amethyst looked down.

Pearl had a twinkle in her eyes, "That's amazing... But Steven's missing and we'll get to it later!"

She dive bombed into the hole in a way that would make Amethyst quit wrestling. "And she says I have terrible form...' she gets ready to go down. But looked at Spessartine, "Ladies first."

Spessartine looked at her, "Sometimes, it sucks being the minority."They both jumped together.

It must've been a fall. It took forever to make it to the bottom. By the time they made it, Pearl, Garnet and Sardonyx all argued. "Where's Steven."

Sardonyx didn't know what to tell them. "Ghosts... So many Ghosts."

Pearl took him by the throat. "Where's my baby I'm going to rip your head off your shoulders!' She let go, and apologized. "Sorry, I lost my composure for a second. But really, who took him?"

Sardonyx looked down, staring into the ground, where blood had been spilled all over the floor. "A Gem Wraith. It's like Citrine, but this one... He's worse..." Sardonyx retreated back into his thoughts, still reeling from what just happened.

Garnet held a small rock in her hands. "I think I might just be able to find him."

Sardonyx gazed down at the stone. "Is that..."

Garnet shook her head and smashed the stone. A path of blue lighting showed the path Turquoise went down. "A parting gift from your friend."

Everyone ran, but Sardonyx fell behind. "I'm gonna get something, keep moving." He ran towards the path to his office. He ripped open the chest with all the shattered gems. He took out the sword, a clean, white kitana. "Order. Sight for sore eyes." He cleaned the dust off the blade and went back to the Blue trail.

They came to the main room. A massive pentagram had been drawn on the floor. An apparition plopped a slightly pink, chubby human being. "Steven!"

Turquoise yelled, "Shut up! He can't hear you, anyways."

"You won't get away with this." All of them took out their weapons, and Turquoise took out his. A massive great sword ripped out of the tear in his massive gem, right where his heart should be. "Three on one. Seems fair.' He laughed as he fenced them off.

Garnet started on the attack first, punching viciously, but her punches only hit air. She felt his blade bury in her shoulder. She let out a yelp, trying to fight back.

Pearl was swatted out, Amethyst took out her whip and lashed out, only hitting Garnet. "Sorry." Turquoise shot her with a lightning bolt, she barreled into a crate.

Spessartine rubbed his hands together and fire rose from his hands. He fired it straight at Turquoise, and it burned him. He let go of Garnet as she clutched at her wound.

Turquoise charged up for a shock wave. "None of you can stop me. My ritual will be complete soon. Only the blade that pierced my gem can kill me."

Sardonyx jumped from a platform, spiking him down with his own blade. "You really should've kept your mouth shut."

He twisted the blade, and Turquoise faded away. "I will, always... Haunt you." The Wraith blurred from existence. And with a gust of vile wind, he was gone.

Steven rose up to his feet. "Guys, what's, going on?" He lazily stumbled and fell to the ground.

Pearl quickly grabbed him. "It's okay, we're here."

Steven sighed. "I'm sorry guys."

Pearl began to feel a tear go down her face. "No, it's not your fault."

Steven felt his breathing get faster. He breathed, but he couldn't feel the air. "I... Can't... Breathe."

Garnet turned him over, exposing two puncture wounds on his side. "We need to get him out of here."

The hiss rang in the dark. Sardonyx rubbed his head again, taking out his mace. "I hate these things."


	25. Chapter 26 Inbound

"Humans are the perfect test subjects. So obedient, so unthinking. They were made to be experimented on. I just can't wait to go back to Earth, continue my experiments!" The once professional diamond suddenly became giddy from the possible enslavement of the human race.

Yellow Diamond rolled her eyes, "That old piece of garbage is nothing compared to what we've built. The Empire we fought so long to make ours. I don't know why you care so much for those cracked gems, just a bunch of weaklings, if I say so myself. Can't even build a single injector without complaining. I just hope that these fleshy meat carcasses are an actual challenge to fight."

Blue Diamond gave a forlorn thought. "What if all the humans are gone? I can't stand working with those furballs."

Yellow Diamond gave her a death stare. "Are you challenging my Authority, Blue? I hope you aren't, or I may have to take 'disciplinary' action."

She took out a strange object and Blue Diamond laughed nervously. "Oh, there's no need for that. I was just saying-"

"Oh Master Diamond. I traded 'Pink' for you. Screw your head on straight, we have a war to fight." Yellow Diamond looked out into the abyss of space. A massive Sun lit the void. Only small specks could be seen. "The blind idiots probably think they're safe, that a god of the Sun can protect them... They are so wrong." She turned to a small object. "What is that."

Blue Diamond turned on her visor. "That appears to be a satellite of some sort. Oh how cute, they put a memory file on it. What could they possibly have on it."

Yellow Diamond pointed to the hunk of metal. "Destroy it."

"Wait, there may be information on how advanced they have become." Blue Diamond's suggestion won over a displeased Yellow Diamond.

"Oh Master, I can't wait to destroy this miserable rock, and maybe go home with a few billion kills. I haven't committed mass genocide in way too long." A sigh of bliss rolled off of her tongue as the ship grew close to a pale blue speck.

...

The backup generators finally turned on, and energy flowed through. Sardonyx gestured everyone to get out. "This place is going to be underwater in a few minutes."

Pearl and Garnet simultaneously smashed into the spider creature, eventually, it 'poofed' away. A Purple gem shard eerily shimmered. They bubbled the shard. But Steven started turning blue from lack oxygen.

Steven saw the blur of lights, and the sound of his name echoing out. He opened his eyes, and suddenly a light showed itself. He looked behind him, and a dark abyss rolled on forever. In the light, a large person stood there.

"Steven." The silhouette showed itself. A pink gem with large hair and a gem on her abdomen. The voice felt so soothing, and familiar somehow.

"Is it you?" Steven didn't even have to think to know the person standing in front of him. It was Rose Quartz. A smile ran down her face, he could see why Pearl always said those things about her. But he knew this wasn't real... Could it. "When do I wake up?"

Rose Quartz closed her eyes. "Not until you can understand what your purpose is. I really never meant this for you... This conflict, this war..." She looked down, a guilt ran through her face. "You need to stop it, before it begins."

Steven knew war was coming. "I'm not strong enough. I'm not you, I'm not that great."

Rose gave a small smirk, as her head tilted slowly side to side. "You don't realize how important you really are. How much progress you have made. How much good you've done. I've been watching you, and you have what it takes, to be better than anything I ever did."

Steven still wasn't sure, he needed one more question. "What about the others? Are they okay?"

She only stepped aside as an orb showed the other gems, all racing with a cracked gem in their hands, and time was running out. He looked at her, "Wait, am I dead?"

The light flashed intensely, and he saw a massive fleet of green hands closing in on the Earth. All pointed gun symbols, and they opened fire. The entire planet turned into a fireball... There was no fight, no war. Just a slaughter.

The Warp Pad took them to the fountain, and the pink gem was bathed in the pool. The crack faded and healed, and everyone gave a sigh of relief. "Now, we wait." Garnet stood over the stone, guarding it from anything that could harm it. Sardonyx stared at the gem, cradling the gem. "We should get going. There are ten extremely dangerous gem monsters out there.

"And the big scary woman." Spessartine added.

"Also, you were talking about how you killed someone." Amethyst put him on blast.

Everyone's heads turned to him. "I was scared, okay." He continued telling the story. "It was another day, I wanted to get out, and I hitched a ship off world. But someone followed me there."

...

The ship turned on, and Spessartine flee off into the stars. He couldn't wait; he was going to leave everything behind. Nobody cared if he left, so it was natural he made a disappearing act. His very persistent stalker, a secret police member, had found him. He was cornered. "I honestly don't understand why you second class trash even think about leaving. Who's going to say you, from me?" The gem summoned a spiked helmet, and he held out his hands, and a fiery blast consumed the gem. The gem was followed by a very similar looking gem followed, but Spessartine was gone before she finally made it. He looked down at his hands, he didn't know where that came from. He didn't come from an ore shelf of warriors. In fact, he was the last of a line of workers.

"I still remember the smell of burning gems. The look of anger, then dread." Spessartine looked off, as if focusing on something in the distance.

"Well, it doesn't matter now. What matters is that we're ready for what's coming." Garnet grimaced from the thought of war again.

"You do know we're all going to die, right? There's no way we can win." Spessartine looked down. "No one fights the Authority and wins."

"Pfft. Oh, I'm so scared of crazy gems from space. What's the worst that could happen?" Amethyst gave a sarcastic display of acting, only to turn serious. "This is my home. Our home. We don't care who it is, we'll always find a way. Right guys?"

Pearl didn't really need to say anything, and Garnet nodded in approval.

Sardonyx gave a small laugh. "Kid, I've fought empires before, on my own. Empires always underestimate, and it's the main reason they lose. A lot. So don't worry yourself. You have the most qualified group of individuals standing in front of you. A master swordswoman, the most reckless dwarf I've ever met,"

"I'm not that short." Amethyst took it as an insult.

Sardonyx continued. "And the first gem I've seen so far that can swim in lava. Trust me, we're over qualified." "Besides, I have a plan.


	26. Chapter 27 True Colors

Sardonyx smiled, as the hologram wired alive. "The Net. Beautiful isn't it?" A massive containment field stretched across thousands of orbiting satellites, enveloping the planet. "Like to see them blast through this."

"How long have you been working on this?" Pearl looked up at the massive network of satellites.

"I always knew they'd return, just a matter of time, it took centuries and billions of dollars, good thing I had both." Sardonyx bowed as the still living scientists gave a cheer, as Net finally became operational.

Spessartine pointed at the satellites, "What if they shoot those little metal parts?"

"Easy, just reinforce them with super metals that can withstand the blast. We've thought of everything." Sardonyx smugly sat in his chair, content.

"What if they got through? Theoretically speaking, they will destabilize the gems, but not the ships, they could crash into Earth like meteors." Pearl felt the need to skeptically analyze the design. Something wasn't right, not at all with this plan. "What about the Earth itself? Those fields might block the Sun's radiation."

Sardonyx turned grave, his eyes turned dark red again. "We'll just have to tough it out."

"Sardonyx, there are millions of people on the surface, this is insane." Pearl easily struck him down.

"Kill millions to save billions." Sardonyx shrugged, "It's easy statistics, Pearl."

"We aren't going to kill millions of people! Are you nuts? Does the term 'Guardians of Earth' not ring to you?" Amethyst berated any sense out of the plan.

"It's our best bet..." Garnet muttered.

Pearl's eyes widened, "Garnet, you can't be seriously considering we..."

Garnet nodded slowly. "We defend the Earth, Pearl, not humanity. Life on Earth will survive. Humanity, will survive."

Spessartine looked around, everyone was voting in, he wasn't sure what to do. Everyone turned to him for the final deciding vote. "I, I don't know... I came here to escape, I didn't think I'd have to watch a planet die..."

Sardonyx's eyes grew even darker. "They just entered the star system, if we don't decide, we're all going to get fried anyways. If you had a chance to save the world for a piece of it, would you?"

Spessartine held his head, "I... No, I don't know, I can't think."

Sardonyx looked down at Steven's gem. "Then there's only one last tally." He looked at Spessartine. "You're spineless, you should've stayed on your world if you didn't want to fight."

"It isn't his fault he's from home world. Stop this, this isn't right." Amethyst tried to be the clearest headed, as everyone seemed to have collectively lost their minds.

"And I'm from a factory made specifically to murder gems and enslave humans. And here I am, killing millions. Do you need a diagram, I was made for this exact reason. You can't escape from what you are." Sardonyx's voice rang cold in the silence.

"But you can live without being that. People can change." Pearl felt like punching him square in the jaw.

"People never change. I've lived through every they've fought. Every single one about who's gem god was stronger or how much money they had. It's all the same nationalist bullshit! People don't change, they stick to what they know! I don't care much for them. They didn't care much for me." Sardonyx was bitter, and his eyes became a red so vibrant, it almost hurt looking at them. "I do the right thing because none of you have the spine to do it. Aren't you all gem warriors, or did she fight your battles for you."

Pearl stood up and got in his face. "Listen good, you sociopath, don't you ever, EVER talk about Rose like that. Do you understand? The world has changed. People aren't all fighting anymore. There is peace. The war was over 6000 years ago. Stop fighting the next one."

Sardonyx gave a stern face. "But it's coming either way. I'm not arguing with you anymore, there isn't anything left to do but fight." He turned to the head scientist. "Activate it."

Pearl stopped him, pointing her spear at his head. "If you turn that switch, everyone is going to die because of you."

Garnet tried to stop her. "Pearl, calm down. Think this through-"

"No, I'm not going to stand there and let him turn this planet into an ice cube." Pearl threw the scientist and pointed her spear at Garnet.

Garnet shook her head. "You can't beat me, Pearl."

Pearl took out a second spear. "Yes I can."

Garnet lunged for the switch, only to be stopped by Amethyst. "We can't do this."

Garnet took her free hand and threw Amethyst. "We have to, it's the only way."

Pearl tackled the fusion into the ground, stabbing her in the shoulder.

With a headache punch, Garnet got up and made it to the switch.

Spessartine blocked it, "We need to think this through, just a little bit more."

"There's not time!" Garnet punched him, only for him to slash her with his sword.

Sardonyx took Spessartine and began to drain him of his energy. He struggled to lift his weapon.

Amethyst spun into him, like a ball. Knocking him and Garnet down.

Garnet punched her in the face. "I'm... Sorry."

"No. This is wrong."

"We have to do this."

Garnet alternated voices, Pearl took the time to stab Garnet, slashing her across the back. She fell to the ground. "Pearl, stop, this isn't right."

Sardonyx stood over both of them and cleaved his mace, knocking her to the ground. "Why are you all standing there, hit the switch!"

Amethyst and Pearl recovered and blocked it from the scientists.

Sardonyx looked at them. "Why, this is the only way. We can't keep fighting like this. We can talk this over, peacefully." He said the last word like he just snapped.

Everyone stopped fighting, ready to fight again, with everyone still pointing their weapons at each other.

"Alright, we can still blow the ships out of the sky with conventional weaponry. Don't you have those cannons from the war?" Sardonyx reasoned with them.

Pearl turned her head, not ready to disengage from a fight. "We can do it, but when Steven comes out from his gem."

They all looked down at the pink gem, and a light came out. Steven came back, and looked around. "What's going on here?"

Sardonyx answered in kind. "A serious misunderstanding."

Steven looked off though. He seemed taller, with more hair than usual. "Could you guys cut it out?"

Everyone dropped their weapons, most dematerialized.


	27. Chapter 28

Steven looked around, he was suppose to be a leader. Everyone was at each other's necks.

They all explained. Trying to fit their story of what they saw. "That guy is trying to trap us all in a big energy net to keep them out. But we might all die before that happens." Amethyst gave her piece.

Sardonyx gave his. "I built this to protect the people of Earth from the upcoming invasion."

Steven felt his head spinning. "What? An invasion?! How long was I gone?"

"Only for a few hours. I'm sorry... We didn't talk to you." Pearl looked down, ashamed.

"You guys. You lied to me. How could you? I trusted you guys, and you planned behind my back!" Steven felt betrayed, beyond anything.

"Steven-"

"No! Don't start with that!" Steven's eyes became watery.

Pearl felt it. He felt her looking down on her, disappointed. She covered her head. "We-I. You weren't ready!"

Steven suck up any tears and suddenly he felt something he never thought he'd ever feel towards them, anger. Hate.

"Who's in charge?" Spessartine shrugged, trying to get an answer out of all of this.

Steven ran into the gate, disappearing in a flash of light.

Pearl tried to run in after him, but Garnet stopped her. "Let him go."

"No, not her." Pearl yelped between her sniffles and sobbing.

Garnet and Amethyst and Pearl stood there, waiting for their leader to come back.

"Activate the Net." Sardonyx ordered the scientists to finally turn it on. And the Net wired alive.

...

Steven stood alone on the beach, looking out at the sea. Sitting, surrounded by the ruins of his home. "I wish you were here. I never knew you... But I know you could do this."

"It hurts, doesn't it?" A familiar voice rang out in the background.

"Lapis?" Steven looked behind him.

Lapis Lazuli sat right next to him. "They lied to you, then left you alone. I used to think this planet is a lost cause. Now, I think it's worth saving. I don't have a home to go back to anymore. Seizing home world... Being fused with Jasper... It was... Horrible."

Steven looked out into the Ocean, as a massive yellow line streaked across it, and slowly consumed the sky. "Well, we're stuck here anyways. Who put you in there anyways? In the mirror."

Lapis shook her head. "Honestly I don't care anymore." She lifted her head from the ground. "I want to fight back. I'm willing to get my home back, just to see it again, one last time."

They walked back to the gate, but first he held out his hand to the sea. "There might be an army after all."

...

Yellow Diamond looked down at the containment field. "What is that?"

Blue Diamond followed her eyes, and gazed down at the Net. "The humans are much smarter than we think. They're expecting us."

"No matter," he turned to one of the soldiers, "Fire."

"Wait," Blue Diamond was too late. The fleet shot at the field, only for the laser fire to reflect back on them, many ships were damaged.

Yellow Diamond held back an angry yell. "Send them to land."

"Yellow, those fields will return them to gems..." Blue Diamond looked to her older 'cousin' for an answer.

Yellow smiled, "That's the point."

Blue Diamond stared at her. "You're sentencing them to death."

Yellow Diamond pointed down at the field. "Those ships will fall down into the planet, they'll rain down like missiles."

Blue Diamond gawked. "This is insane! You can't be considering killing your own..."

"A thousand dead soldiers is nothing compared to the millions we can make on this planet. It really is simple statistics." Yellow Diamond turned back to Blue Diamond. "Know your place, it isn't on the battlefield."

Blue Diamond just wanted to get White Diamond to get down here and crack some sense into her, she's clearly lost her mind. Obsessed in winning, at all costs.

The ships stopped temporarily, knowing they will probably die. The ships fell down, and like a fable, crashed into the sea of green and blue.

They detonated, and it was as if they someone was destroying the incoming ships.

"Very cunning, the heretic has really outdone herself this time." Yellow Diamond smirked in approval.

...

Sardonyx ordered the ordinance missiles on the Net's satellites to open fire on the wreckage of the falling ships. "A thousand years of planning done right."

The Crystal Gems looked down at the hands. War was coming. One way, or another, and they were going to be apart of it.

Steven returned, with Lapis next to him. The other Crystal Gems were ready to fight, but she quickly explained. "I don't have anything left to fight for back on home world."

They all escorted her to a cozy cell, kept open. "What happened to her?" Amethyst asked Steven.

"A new reason to fight. With us." Steven looked over at Sardonyx, and they stared down. He knew he shouldn't be allowed to have that much power. He would destroy the Earth just to win a war.

Sardonyx only agreed to help Steven because he was the heir to Rose's army. Only because of that gem. He barely qualified as even their leader. A joke, even to his own people. Sardonyx looked back at the massive warship, as it projected a message, by radio.

The satellites somehow picked the frequency up. "People of Earth, we are willing to withdraw, at the price of one boy. He lives amongst you. Both human, and of gem descent. Within a solar wind's first breath, we will descend and if he isn't present. We will destroy everything that lives on this planet."

The transmission ended. And the panic began. The street turned to riots. Angry men burned the cities in desperation. They hunted down every boy, between 6 and 15 years of age, and presented them.

Steven looked up. "We have to. It's the only way."

"No, this is crazy. We'll fight them." Pearl readied her spear.

Everyone fell silent.

"No one else needs to get hurt because of me."


	28. Chapter 29 A King's Testament

"You know the prophecy..." Blue Diamond whispered to Yellow Diamond.

"We aren't little gems that just a out of the hole, Blue. Fairy tales aren't real. I really expected more from you, you're created to be the logical one." Yellow Diamond sneered at her less powerful brethren.

"I'm not going down there." Blue Diamond stomped her foot down.

Yellow Diamond rolled her eyes. "Typical. Stay here. I'll do the grunt work for you." She looked back into space, before stepping back into an escape pod.

"Wait, how are you going to-"

The pod dropped down into the field, as a clearing opened on the Net.

"Energy resistant shielding. And I'm the smart one." Blue Diamond looked down with a smug look on her face.

...

"Foreign object detected!" The computer's AI made it clear.

"Don't fire, plot trajectory." Sardonyx barked at the hologram.

It was revealed to be crashing down at Kindergarten. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl dismally walked Steven to the gate.

Sardonyx jumped down, ordering Spessartine to be in charge of the Net's defenses. "Don't screw this up."

Spessartine looked hopelessly at the controls. "I hate this job."

...

The ship crashed into the barren wasteland. Out stepped Yellow Diamond, regal armor adorned her body, with a crown encrusted with all of her victim's gems.

The gems froze as they saw the massive gem. She was easily twice Garnet's size, and judging from her crown, ten times as strong.

Steven turned, "I guess this is goodbye..."

Pearl burst into tears as she ran into him, hugging him.

Amethyst and Garnet followed, all of them hugging.

Sardonyx slowly walked up to Steven. "I swear, I'll find you. I won't stop, until you're home, safe."

Steven nodded as he turned towards the massive gem. Yellow Diamond was disappointed. "Of all the forms, Rose, you choose this. I honestly thought you of us all had standards." She gestured him to come closer. He stepped a few feet closer. She leaned toward him. "You are under arrest, for the crimes your 'mother' committed. You will serve your sentence-" She stopped as soon as she saw Sardonyx.

Sardonyx stared down his creator.

Yellow Diamond smirked. "An experiment, impossible. Oh, Blue Diamond's gonna love this." She had a deal boiling in her head. "I see you all adore this-thing, so how about a trade; the boy, for the experiment.

Sardonyx nodded, and walked closer.

Steven tried stopping him. "No, I won't let you. No one else needs to get hurt because of me."

"Steven." Sardonyx looked down at him. And grabbed him by the shoulders. "You have a lot more people to save. I have to pay for what I've done, you don't deserve what they'd do to you."

Sardonyx walked up to the giant gem. "I won't go quietly." He took out his mace. One last fight. He didn't care if he would lose, it didn't matter. This was proof that everything he did was for a reason. There was a death he could find satisfying.

He clashed with the giant. Steven tried to stop him, but Garnet held him back. Sardonyx swung at the Yellow Diamond, she stood as he tried as hard as he could to finish the fight.

Yellow Diamond grabbed him by the arm, and snapped it like a twig. "You're not strong enough. But I think I'll have to teach you a lesson, what comes around, goes around." She let him go and walked towards the gems.

Sardonyx yelled out to her. "This is between me, and you, keep them out of this!"

Yellow Diamond ran into them, ready to kill.

But a spinning ball of orange light barreled into her.

"That's for abandoning me." Jasper screamed out to her former master.

Yellow Diamond soon got angry, "You dare challenge me? My own captain? Traitor!" Yellow Diamond and Jasper tackled each other, and struggled for power.

The Crystal Gems all fought Yellow Diamond, just to keep her at bay.

Yellow Diamond backhanded Amethyst, and made quick work of Pearl. Garnet fell immediately after.

They all dropped like flies. Steven even tried to stop her, but it was no use. She decimated them, tossing them like garbage. Sardonyx knew there was only one other thing that could stop her. "Spessartine!"

"What dude?" Spessartine quickly scrolled through the manual.

"Reroute the satellites, aim them at me." Sardonyx barked.

Spessartine shook his head. "This is a joke right?"

"I'm not joking right now, turn them on me, set them to fire." Sardonyx relocated his shoulder and reengaged Yellow Diamond.

"It's going to take at least five minutes." Spessartine yelped.

"Oh, fu-"

Sardonyx gets thrown across the Kindergarten. He can't overpower her. He needs to take the home advantage. He activated his gem distabilizer, and slashed at Yellow Diamond, but she took it away and punched him with a cross to the nose. He sprawled from it. He recalibrate his suit. He rerouted all electricity to the main stunner. "Alright, I surrender."

"Smart gem, but you really shouldn't have tried fighting me." Yellow Diamond got close.

Sardonyx grabbed her temples and ran 50,000 volts through her. He kneed her jaw and cleaved with his mace.

A hit finally showed damage, as she slowed down. She punched and punched, but Sardonyx shielded himself with his right arm. He countered with a left swing.

"Get out, NOW!" Sardonyx spun his mace into a flail as he swung at unpredictable angles, destroying chunks of armor and finally damaged her.

"Impressive. I will grant you a warrior's death." Yellow Diamond summoned her weapon, a shield with a pointed end.

She bashed him down into the ground. "Kneel."

"You don't control me." Sardonyx head butted the gem and struck again, chipping her face.

Jasper tackled just in time. Taking her crash helmet and whaling out on her liege.

Sardonyx joined in, and slowly it seemed to finally give in.

Yellow Diamond spun around, knocking both of them to the ground.

Sardonyx recovered and proceeded to attack. He grabbed his creator, and used his power.

Yellow Diamond panicked as the power seeped from her, and into Sardonyx, his flesh grinding from his arm, as the protrusions grew to his chest.

Weak, she fell to the floor. Sardonyx stepped on her chest, triumphantly.

"Satellites in position," Spessartine finally got them to work."

"Broadcast this to them." He didn't need to point, Spessartine pointed the satellites out into space, and sent it as a transmission.

He leaned close to his Creator. "You feel it now, don't you, death slowly crawling into your mind, feasting on your pride. In all the centuries to come, in your most gleeful moments. Remember me. Remember the man that beat the god. Remember the experiment that led an army, remember the accident that spawned a thousand revolutions. Pay hommage, to the King." He took off her crown. "Consider yourself, dethroned."

He put on her crown, and in glory, and triumph. He was the helpless boy in the desert, and now he conquers gods.

Yellow Diamond pushed him aside as a warp gate snatched her into the heavens.

"We did it." Sardonyx called in, only for Jasper to close in on him.

Jasper looked at him, and spun into a ball and dashed into the horizon.

Sardonyx coughed, and suddenly, he looked down at his chest, completely covered in his own spines.

A king for a minute, a conqueror once again, just for a little while.

He heaved for breath, as blood spat back from his lungs. It was almost over now. He felt his body turn cold, as he fell away.

"Sleep... Finally."


	29. Chapter 30 Cold

Sardonyx's gem laid on the desert sands, where he first came to be, ironically. Robonoids began to remove the crown.

Steven and the Crystal Gems saw as his body was dragged towards the gate. But Steven stopped them. "He's gone."

Pearl looked where he'd been. A gem glittered in the sand, "Wait." She picked up the gem, a crack tearing it nearly in half.

"It should've been me." Steven muttered. Why did he fight her? He knew he wouldn't survive.

Garnet looked down at the striped gem, he was broken, but wasn't shattered. "We can take him to the fountain..."

Pearl shook her head, "The gem is broken in three parts. She rested the gem in the sands. She took out a sword, and sunk it in the sand; a makeshift grave.

The Crystal Gems returned to the facility. Garnet looked for his files, and found a catalog of all the gems they hadn't found.

Pearl found something else, a book, next to the cracked gem. She read through, his life of countless wars and all his friends he's had to kill. There was one log when he talked about her. She looked at it, and closed the book. He wrote it like he'd never seen someone before. She found one last log, right before his death:

 _If you are reading this, it is already too late for me. Heed my words, they will return. They won't stop until they have Steven. I've already seen it. Then they'll destroy the Earth, sapping it of life. You have to protect Steven. This is probably the last time, thank you._

Pearl looked down at it, it was a warning from the future. She called over. "You want it see this, Garnet."

Garnet looked over and read it. "He's seen the ending, it's one of the few where Earth is destroyed. It is preventable, but he forgot to mention: one of us was going to die."

"It was him." Pearl looked up into the Net, as it flickered from lack of energy.

...

Yellow Diamond covered her wounds from her soldiers, they should never see her weak, the very moment they see her beaten, the moment she loses control. He broadcasted her defeat to her entire fleet.

"Who was that?" Blue Diamond looked at the half gem towering over her.

"A shattered gem." Yellow Diamond told them to send robonoids to his gem. "If it ever is replicated, it's going to wish it died on that sand dune."

The robonoids fell into the Kindergarten, undetected by the Net's defenses. They dug up the shattered remains of Sardonyx. Sent them back, for them to be analyzed thoroughly.

...

The opaque gem glinted in the light, half broken. Without a body to contain it.

The Blue Diamond looked at the gem. The eerie beauty of it took her off guard immediately. The ominous sheen layered by the ravages of time. Rings gently lined the surface. The stone seemed more and more alive. Blue Diamond could feel it; a heat eminating from a single gemstone was making it hard to look at.

"Could we replicate it?"

"Not completely. We need to obtain this substance from this 'fountain' they keep talking about."

...

Spessartine looked up at the Net, giving off its last flickers of energy. "He did it, that clod actually did it."

Everyone exhaled in relief as the ships all fell back into the vast emptiness of space. Pearl looked up at the display. A bittersweet feeling swept her. Could they really have done it any other way? Garnet stoic as ever, can only just console them as they grieve over the loss of an ally... No, their friend."There's still gem fragments scattered across the Earth, Jasper is still a threat, and we can't keep waiting here."

Everyone glanced off at her. She was tight, but it seemed so hard to move on. The room felt empty, cold, and above all else, dead silent. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl went off to go fight against another threat.

Steven kept himself in the room. It wasn't just his death. Steven knew he could've saved him, if he had just handed himself over. For the first time, Steven's face grew cold, the light in his eyes slowly fading into a cold stare. His face no longer in a smirk or smile. Everything was so dark, and he knew the shattered pieces of him scattered in the ground. Maybe. Just maybe he could save him. His saliva, or maybe the fountain. There had to be a way to save him. He steeled himself to find the sword buried in the dirt.

Spessartine was waiting from him at the gate. "Nonono. You definitely aren't going down there. It's way too dangerous."

Steven continued toward the warp gate. "I can fix this, I can save him."

"No, you can't. He's gone." Spessartine still stood at the opening warp gate. "I hate to say this, but that's permanent."

"You're wrong." Steven felt his eyes sting, "We just take it to the fountain-"

"Steven-"

"Stop it. Stop following me. You didn't even know him. You probably work for them! For all we know, you just want to come here and take what you want! Just go back home, where you belong." Steven pushed past him, running into the gate.

Spessartine felt a sting of regret. He'd just left home, now he had nowhere to go. No home. No friends, just memories of a time before he went on this crusade to find freedom. He didn't think it would be so hard to see it all fade away. He felt a burning feeling roll across his cheeks.


	30. Chapter 31

Steven stood in a ditch where one of Pearl's swords stood up in the sand. The ditch was empty. There wasn't a single piece. Steven smirked. "He's alive, somewhere." Steven stood up, ready to leave, his eyes filled with hope. A small slither that maybe he was alive.

Pearl and Garnet had frantically been searching for Steven. They finally saw him at the foot of the sword. "What are you doing down there?" Pearl quickly ran out of words as she saw the ditch. There weren't any shards at all. No trace of any gem. Pearl looked down at the empty ditch in terror. "Steven. We need to go back." She didn't want him to know what might've happened to the shards.

Steven looked up, brimming with confidence. "We can find him, he's out there. Somewhere."

"We can find him later, but we should get back to the gate before anything _else_ gets here." Pearl glanced up at Garnet, unsure of what to do.

Garnet shook her head with relative subtlety, just enough for Pearl to understand.

Steven eventually ran back to the gate, brimming with life again.

Spessartine could only sigh. He knew as well as the others what might've happened to the remaining fragments of the gem experiment. The monitor flickered. "Um, can I live with you guys? I don't have a house..."

"Sure." Amethyst walked toward the warp alongside Garnet and Pearl.

Pearl elbowed Amethyst, hitting her in the head. "Ow, what was that for?"

Pearl whispered rather loudly. "Amethyst, talk with us before inviting strangers into the temple."

Amethyst wanted to protest, but she just didn't feel like it.

Spessartine gave the best fake smile he could, but it oozed sarcasm. It wasn't really a time to be happy.

That was when the first tremors began.

It started as a sound, almost indiscernible, but would slowly build into a quake in the earth. As quickly as it came, it rested.

"What was that?" Spessartine scanned around the room. "Why is the ground shaking?"

"Wait!"

A frantic scientist barreled his way into the gems. "Just wait a moment."

"No, we're done, we've protected Earth. It's safe."

"No." Jostling his laptop in his hands, he propped it up. The display showed a large graph and what looked like some type of dent in the Earth itself. "Ther-e is something in the planet. That wasn't an Earthquake. We've calculated some object is burrowing around in the center of the planet. If that thing doesn't stop, the magnetic field will destabilize!"

"And..." Spessartine gestured to him the importance of the jumbling nonsense that was being thrown at him.

"We're all going to die!" The man started tearing up, "Oh Lord, we're doomed, it's over." He began to go ballistic.

Pearl's eyes widened. She regained composure and tried to get some information on what was going on. After having a brief conversation, she got up. Slowly turning to the others. "There's nothing we can do... It's some type of gem. It has to be the size of the moon..."

Amethyst shook her head. "No." She looked around to find something, anything they could use. "Well, we just stand here?! We could... I don't know, throw a bomb at it?"

Pearl shook her head. "It's too big."

Amethyst racked her brain for ideas. "Dig it out?"

Pearl shook her head again, "With the rest of the Earth's core, never."

Amethyst was pulling her hair out, trying to think of a way out of this. "There's got be something, anything!"

"We could melt it." Spessartine offered up another.

Pearl frowned, "It lives in the core, there isn't anything hotter on this planet that could melt that thing if it could survive that, besides, we'd never get close eno-"

Pearl felt an idea coming. "Is Peridot still on Earth?"

The scientist blurted out, "Who?"

"Short, green, has a triangle for a head?" Pearl felt the idea coming into focus, like a lens.

"I'd have to check, but perhaps..."

"Find her, we might still have a chance..."

Garnet was puzzled, but finally understood what was fizzling in her mind.

"The estimated time left before it could generate enough force to shatter through mantle would be within a year or so, give or take a few months."

The entire room was dead silent.


End file.
